Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet (rewrite)
by scrambled888
Summary: A choice has weight and meaning behind it, like a bullet. Unfortunately, Fatal Bullet didn't deliver on that promise. So I'm rewriting the game. A rewrite of Fatal Bullet. No "Your choice is as heavy as a bullet", but hopefully a well told story to compensate.
1. 1: Link Start!

**Hello everyone, thank you for checking out my Fatal Bullet rewrite.**

 **I don't want to bore you with a long speech, so I'll save that for after the chapter. The only things I should state is that this chapter is basically the first part of Fatal Bullet, before Kureha and the Protagonist go into the dungeon, only with dialogue changes and an added scene.**

 **This will be told from a first person perspective. [YN] stands for Your Name. Feel free to insert your OC's name into this.**

 **I do not own or am affiliated with Sword Art Online.**

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Chapter 1

Link Start!

 _A world of guns and guts._

That's what she told me over the phone. It had been so long since we had talked that I could hardly believe she was inviting me to meet in this virtual world. I didn't hesitate to accept, buying the game and paying the connection fee. And now I was joining the world of Gun Gale Online.

Everything seemed to faze into existence around me, the main safe area appearing right before my eyes, the SBC Glocken. Player numbers were thin, but that was probably due to many being out in the field. After all, the reason she had were invited here was to help her with a brand-new quest. Many people were probably out grinding.

As more of the world began to render, the digital effects around me disappeared. It was strange. I hadn't played many VR games before this. In fact, this account had only been played for about an hour in another game called Alfheim Online. It wasn't much, but it gave me a little boost in terms of stats. Either way, I had better find my friend quickly otherwise I would be wandering around aimlessly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting!"

A wave of nostalgia hit me as I heard the voice I hadn't heard for a couple of years. I turned to see a pink haired girl with a bright smile. Her whole outfit was a combination of pink, white and grey. She hadn't changed at all from what I could see.

"Registering for the tournament took longer than I expected." She let out a small sigh. "I see you managed to log in okay. Been waiting long?"

"Not at all." My whole body relaxed. "Long time no see."

She shook her head. "I'm surprised you recognise me, considering my avatar looks so different than how I look in real life. Oh, my name is Kureha in here by the way."

I took mental note of Kureha's new name. After all, it was generally a bad idea to use your real name as your avatar's. "I'm [YN]. Hang on, how did you know it was me?"

Kureha shrugged. "You're the same old [YN] I knew as a kid. Of course I recognised you right off the bat." She folded her arms, thinking for a second. "You've got that aura of friendliness and unsociability around you. Same old [YN]." Her smile returned. "Anyway, welcome to GGO. I guess this is your first VRMMO."

I shook my head. "It's a transferred account, but I only played a little."

"Well then, let me show you the ropes. We have a little time before the tournament starts." Kureha grabbed my hand and dragged me along the path.

The SBC Glocken was massive by itself. Several short walkways attached the main one to shops, houses and alleyways. Already I could see several merchants trying to push some sort of weapon onto passing players, or players losing at the several gambling games that were side attractions. Even with the wide variety of stores, Kureha dragged me straight to a terminal inside what appeared to be a café. A large list of various weapons towered over me.

"You won't have much money yet." Kureha opened her menu. A notification popped up in the top right of my vision. I swiped downwards, index and middle finger together, to open the menu. I had received a friend request and a message. Inside the message was 4,000 credits. "There, that should be able to get you a better gun than the cheap ray gun."

"You didn't have to…" I muttered under my breath.

"Geez, I forgot how stubborn you can be." Kureha sighed. "I have plenty of money. Plus, I kind of dragged you out here. Think of it as a welcoming gift."

I thanked her before turning to the terminal. Upon placing my hand on it, a large menu opened up. At least fifty items were listed, ranging from guns and ammunition to outfits and gadgets. I selected the first gun, a blank window being filled with an image of the gun and a brief description.

"That one's kind of good for beginners." Kureha was leaning over my shoulder, looking at the gun. "Assault rifles are very middle of the road. Once you start getting skills, they can easily become very powerful. Although if you want high damage, you'd be better off going for a rocket launcher or a sniper rifle."

I laughed. "You really know a lot about this game."

Kureha froze for a second before laughing as well. "Well, I have spent a lot of time here."

We spent a few minutes looking through the weapons, annoying a pair of players who wanted to use our terminal. Eventually I settled on an assault rifle and the ray gun everyone was supposed to buy. After buying ammo and a First Aid Kit, Kureha lead me up towards the gate to the dungeon.

The dungeon, from what Kureha had explained, was underneath the safe area. It was a rather odd choice, but the quest was labelled as a beginner quest. Many players who had been there since launch were apparently signing up because it would reward a powerful item and they'll be able to blaze through the dungeon with ease. It made me wonder why Kureha even needed me here, but I was happy all the same. Maybe she too had realised how long it had been.

"Whoa, is that Itsuki!?"

Kureha's cry of surprise made me look to where she was staring. Standing by the gate, surrounded by players that were mostly female, was a rather bored looking individual. The density of the crowd made his white and grey battle suit hard to see, but his tall body made it easy to see his sharp eyes, despite one being mostly covered by long hair swept forwards over it.

I couldn't deny it. He was cool.

Kureha looked kind of disheartened though. "If he's entering the tournament, our chances have gone down a lot…" She shook of her sorry expression and sighed. "He's one of GGO's top players, and the head of Alphard, a squadron made up of strong players."

I raised an eyebrow, confused. "Squadron?"

"It's basically a guild."

Itsuki caught us staring and looked a little relieved. He moved through his army of fans to join us. "Hey, you two entering the tournament too?"

"Yes!" I noticed Kureha tense up.

"You're Kureha, right? I've heard about you."

A noticeable blush appeared on her cheeks as Kureha's eyes widened in surprise. "Y-you have!?"

Itsuki nodded. "You've got quite a reputation of jumping between squadrons, helping out wherever you go. Your analysis skills are unparallel."

I had no idea that Kureha held such a reputation. It did make me feel rather lucky that I was going to be fighting alongside such a well renowned player. Kureha just smiled and bowed, thanking him.

Then Itsuki turned his attention to me. "And who's this? Your equipment looks beginner tier. I'm guessing you're a newbie."

"This is [YN]. We've been friends for years. I invited him to play because he's really good with games." Kureha spoke before I even got a chance to open my mouth.

"Only outside of VR…" I muttered under my breath.

Despite the fact I knew he heard me, Itsuki raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You must be brave to enter a tournament so early. But I like that. After all, guns and skills aren't the only thing you need to bring to a gun fight to be successful."

"I hear you can bring a sword too." I nodded.

Kureha rolled her eyes while Itsuki chuckled. "Nice to meet you both. I look forward to an…interesting fight."

We waved goodbye as Itsuki walked away from us. Kureha's blush had disappeared, now replaced with a confident smile and a focused look. "Itsuki is amazing, but I'm almost strong enough to make it into the top rankings. I won't let someone like him stop me." She turned her attention to the teleporter. "Shall we go? That treasure isn't going to find itself."

I readied my gun, nodding. We both stepped towards the teleporter, the link between here and the dungeon. The same glowing blue light that brought me to this world surrounded my body as the world turned dark.

My name is [YN]. This is how I gain everything, and lost everything else.

* * *

 **I did warn you it was going to be a retread. Hopefully you enjoyed though and got an idea for my style of writing.**

 **I took on this project thanks to the Gamerturk Discord Server after discussing Fatal Bullet's story and how we found it lacking and advertised poorly. I will say it right here, this will have little choice involved. I was planning on a choice system, but scrapped it after deciding it would result in a mess of a story. But hopefully now you know, you won't be disappointed when the only decision you get to make is which waifu do you want to save.**

 **After around Chapter 3, I will be making changes to the story/story structure. No more Bazalt Joe fights back to back! If I was handed the keys to Fatal Bullet, story and gameplay would be balanced a lot more. Please assume if there was a gap in the story, that there was a gameplay section.**

 **Anyway, I'm rambling for too long. Just so you know, I have no planned upload schedule. I will try and update regularly and finish this, as I am prone to half completing projects.**

 **Reviews are appreciated, especially constructive criticism. Until next time, whenever that is :)**


	2. 2: Luck

**Hello again. I'm back with another chapter. A lot sooner than I expected. Please do not expect this to be the regular upload schedule, I am terrible sometimes at time management.**

 **This one's a little longer than Chapter 1, so it might cushion the wait for Chapter 3. But who knows, maybe I'll be bored again and write to out quickly again. A man can dream, right?**

 **Anyway, see you below.**

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Chapter 2

Luck

It didn't take long for the world to form back together. However, the dull greys and blues of the SBC Glocken were replaced with just grey. For a dungeon that rewards such a rare item, it certainly didn't look visually appealing.

Kureha, however, wasn't paying attention to the decor. Her eyes were darting around the room, checking for any threats. Once she had found the area to be safe, she let out a sigh of relief before opening her menu. "Right, we should probably go over the basics." She walked over to me and lifted my arms up so I was aiming the barrel at shoulder height. "Keep the butt of the gun resting against either your shoulder or upper arm and hold the gun straight."

I did so, finding the butt to be rather comfortable despite it being made of what looked to be plastic. The gun itself was rather light for being an assault rifle. After making sure my grip and posture was satisfactory, Kureha nodded and began leading me towards the next room.

The massive door opened to reveal a small arena of sorts. Two small robots hovered above, hunting for other players. I immediately prepared to fire, but Kureha stopped me. "You can't just fire a gun like an FPS. Look…" She placed her finger on the trigger of her submachine gun, a movement which I copied. Suddenly, a green circle appeared where my gun was aiming. It was expanding and shrinking, surprisingly in time with my heartbeat.

"Why is it tied to my heart?" I frowned.

"Oh, you've already picked that up?" Kureha looked impressed. "That's the Bullet Circle. Depending on your heartbeat, it changes speed. When you fire, the bullet will land randomly in that space."

"I don't like randomness." I sighed.

Kureha shrugged. "Well, you can increase the time it stays small by increasing your agility." She glanced down at her wrist. "Anyway, we won't find that treasure standing around here." She suddenly shoved me out from our cover to my surprise and horror. The two drones immediately focused on me thanks to the yell of shock that escaped me.

"Why!?" I yelled as a red line appeared in front of my face. Instinct said I should avoid it, and I threw myself out of the way just in time as the drone fired, the bullet flying past me.

"That's the Bullet Line!" Kureha yelled from her hiding space. "It shows the trajectory of the bullet. If you see it, you might want to get out of the way."

"I think I got that!" I had to shout as I jumped out of the way of the next attack. I noticed my jump felt off. It was floaty at first, but soon pulled me down to earth like a sack of bricks. Nevertheless, it helped me move out of the way of the drones. I raised my assault rifle to point at the nearest of the two drones, the bullet circle appearing over it. I pressed my finger against the trigger, feeling the gun moving upwards as it held the trigger down. Though thanks to my experience with other FPSs, I anticipated this and held the foregrip tight, keeping the gun under control. A bar appeared next to the drone as the first bullet hit, but it didn't take long for the bar to disappear.

Upon hearing a small sound behind me, I whipped around in time to see the Bullet Line shining in my eye. The red distracted me for a second before the bullet hit. A numb feeling began creeping its way through my face, but I responded by unloading the remainder of my magazine into the drone.

"Are you okay?" Kureha finally left her spot and came over to me.

"Why would you just push me out there?" I was trying to hide it, but my hand was shaking a little from the adrenaline rush.

Kureha hid her laughter behind her hand. "Well, you didn't do too bad for your first gun fight. Most people just stand there and take unneeded damage. You might want to use that first aid kit to heal before we go on."

I opened my menu and saw the icon at the bottom. Pressing it, a soft green glow appeared around me, and the numb feeling in my eye began to disappear. I hadn't even noticed that the vision in that eye had gone completely, a detail that I noted down mentally. I grabbed one of the magazines from a pouch that had was attached to my belt, replacing the empty one, before slinging the assault rifle over my shoulder and following Kureha out of the room.

"We'll probably encounter more enemy types along the way, so you can get used to the different tactics each one uses." Kureha explained as we went through an empty corridor. As we turned the corridor, a group of three players were standing around in front of the door. "Oh boy…"

"Hey boys, it looks like it's Kureha." The tallest player grinned as he saw them, his whiskers curling upwards. His hand moved up to his face, placing a pair of sunglasses over his eyes. His attire was rather basic, being a combat vest over a black shirt that left his arms fully exposed, showcasing his rather comically big muscles. The two companions had the beginner tier outfit but their faces were covered by a white metal mask.

"Hey Tarako. Still waiting around for helpless players?" Kureha was tense, her fingers twitched towards the submachine gun that lay on her belt.

"You know it. And that friend of yours looks pretty helpless…" Tarako looked at me, obviously regarding to the beginner equipment that I had on.

I flashed a smile at Kureha. "They're not going to let us through."

"So we're going through them." To my surprise, Kureha reached behind her back and pulled out a massive rocket launcher. She soon closed the gap between her and one of the two companion players, firing point blank and sending the poor guy flying into the wall. Their health dropped rather rapidly, not depleting fully. Tarako got between the two, defending his fallen comrade. That left the other player to me.

I retrieved the assault rifle from behind my back and dived behind cover as the player brought out a strange looking gun. It sounded like a bird tweeting as it fired, the bullets looking more like small lights rather than bullets. I looked at Kureha who had already seen my situation, and despite being in a gunfight herself, she threw a device my way. I caught it and placed it on the ground. Two thin rods extended out, sending a green shield upwards. It was tall enough for me to stand behind, which I did.

The balls of light hit the shield, their brightness dimming. They still hit me, but the numbness barely amounted to anything. I fired, the darker, more dense bullets passing right through the shield and hitting the player. Their health fell to half before they dived behind cover. I took the opportunity to reload before running at the hiding place. As I went around, a small sound under my feet alerted me to something. As I began firing, an explosion threw me away. The wall knocked the breath out of me. I slumped as my feet hit the floor.

The player chuckled. "Tarako was right. Helpless." Their gun raised to point at my head.

A blast came from behind them, and it was their turn to kiss the wall. However, they never touched the floor, shattering apart into what looked like red pieces of glass.

Kureha joined me offering a hand. "That looked bad."

"Yeah, you didn't tell me about the explosives." I took her hand and she lifted me to my feet. I used my first aid kit, glad it wasn't a one use item.

"Oh yeah, blame it on me." Kureha sighed, but couldn't hide how much she was enjoying herself. "You seem to get the basic though. Right, let's go and get that treasure!" With a new sense of determination, we ventured right through the door that Tarako had been guarding.

Right into Itsuki.

"Oh, it's you two." He looked impressed. However, his boredom hadn't gone completely. I guessed it was just part of who he was. His companion was completely different. He had a white suit that looked too knightly to be in a game like this. And it might've just been me, but the outfit and glasses just didn't go together.

Despite Itsuki's lax posture, Kureha leaned towards me. "If you see an opportunity, run for it." Her whisper was barely audible, but I yawned to help cover it up. "If that guy's with Itsuki, he's obviously pretty skilled. We're seriously outclassed."

"Hmm, if you're planning to run, while that would be the best choice, you do realise we'll just shoot you in the back right?" Itsuki smiled. "I don't know about Kureha, but I'm sure you'll die in one hit newbie." His cocky expression said it all. He was better than both of us, and he knew it.

"Well, I don't know about Kureha, but I'm not going down without a fight." My hand was ready to aim the gun at Itsuki's head. I might not be able to kill him, but leaving a mark should also leave an impression.

Itsuki chuckled. "I doubt it would be much of a fight. But I'd rather not waste the bullets."

"You're letting us go?" Kureha narrowed her eyes, already knowing the answer.

"Of course not. This is GGO, and we are in the middle of a battle." He raised his hand to his chin, thinking. "How about this? Which would you prefer to be killed by, me or one of the enemies?"

"Is that a trick question?" I sighed.

"Truth be told, a rather troublesome enemy is lying ahead. It probably got some sort of trap laid out for anyone who enters." He pointed behind him with his thumb, implying that the enemy was behind the large gate. "Would you mind checking it out? I'll let you go if you manage to defeat it."

Kureha sighed. "I guess we have little choice in the matter."

"Yeah, we're signing our death warrants by fighting him." I agreed with her. It seemed even Itsuki knew what we were going to pick, his hand resting on his hip, nowhere near his gun.

"Fine, we'll do it." Kureha nodded. "But when we beat it…"

Itsuki chuckled, picking up on Kureha's confidence. "Of course. I might lie, but I never break a promise. I'll only watch you two fight." He looked at me. "You can tell a lot more from the way people fight than the way they talk."

Itsuki's companion stepped forwards. "You might not realise it, but you're extremely lucky. Itsuki spared you on a whim."

They both moved out of the way, allowing me and Kureha through. She loaded her launcher and frowned. "I'll take the front lines. You back me up." I nodded.

The gate opened to reveal a single enemy. It was a strange machine, supporting the main core with four legs. The only visible weapon was a minigun on the bottom. As Kureha and I took note, the gun started to rotate, a Bullet Line aiming for her.

I retrieved my assault rifle and started firing at the glowing core. The health was rather large, but not really impossible to take down, even if I was alone. The damage I was doing would mean the enemy would be dead within a few minutes. The minigun started firing at Kureha who rolled out of the way and fired a rocket at the boss. The rocket slammed into one of the legs, flames sprouting on it. I continued my barrage while Kureha threw her rocket launcher aside and used a skill as she took out the submachine gun. She slid towards the machine, spraying bullets at it, and once her foot connected with the enemy, she flipped away, out of range of any retaliation.

The enemy's health sat at half. It changed target to me. I ran from the gunfire, diving behind a low wall. I could hear Kureha firing from the other side of the room. The machine stopped firing and I stood up, firing at the machine. It suddenly collapsed, the minigun falling silent and being replaced with the crackling of electricity. Kureha yelled something that was drowned out by the stunned machine, but I got the general idea of what she wanted me to do. I ran towards the enemy, firing point blank into the core. It began to rise up, but my attack gave time for Kureha to reload her launcher, firing a single rocket at the enemy. The machine collapsed again, but this time it exploded into a thousand blue particles.

Kureha let out a sigh of relief. "I thought this would be hard."

"Good job." I raised my hand towards her. We exchanged a high five and smiled. That wave of nostalgia hit me again before turning to the gate.

Itsuki wasn't there.

"That backstabbing…little…" Kureha looked angry as she ran for the exit. I followed her. The exit opened and Itsuki was standing right there. He wore the same impressed expression that he had done when they had caught up with him. His companion on the other hand was rather annoyed. "Well, we won."

Itsuki nodded. "Yeah. And a promise is a promise."

They were standing at a fork in the path. Both paths led down to a door that blocked what lay beyond them. Kureha frowned as she looked down both and let out a sigh. "If there's two ways to go down, then let's let Itsuki go first."

Both parties stood there for a good ten seconds. I began tapping my foot in impatience before Itsuki broke the awkward standoff. "What's wrong?"

"Well, we thought you were going first." I shrugged.

Itsuki chuckled. "Unfortunately, I have the absolute worst luck possible. Every time I make a decision, the treasure is always taken by the Uncrowned Queen. Maybe you should pick the road to take, and we'll take the other."

Kureha looked a little suspicious, but nodded. "Well, you pick the road [YN]."

I glanced down the halls and saw no difference. Despite that, I could feel the right choice would lie down the right path. "Right is right." Kureha rolled her eyes but we left Itsuki and his companion at the crossroad and went towards the door I had picked. The door opened to a corridor which looked very promising. The corridor was tubular, with a mix of grey and brown panels on every surface, and bars of blue light inside the floor. It looked like it was part of a completely different area.

Kureha folded her arms and closed her eyes, letting out a deep breath. "I'm glad that went well. Itsuki's popular, but he's still a GGO player. Not everyone is as nice as him. Like Tarako for example." She relaxed as we got close to the other end of the corridor. "Now then, let's find that rare item. We should be able to avoid anyone else."

"You know, that enemy wasn't too hard though." I frowned. "Why do you think Itsuki made us fight it?"

"Well, it's likely he just assumed that the enemy would be difficult." Kureha shrugged it off.

The next door opened to reveal a room with several computer on the opposite end of the room, which Kureha ran straight towards. I walked down the steps to study a strange device that sat in the centre. It was large, nearly touching the ceiling with its four spires. At the moment, it looked dead.

Kureha jumped up the steps to the computers, spreading her arms out as she landed at the top. It was childish, but her beaming smile had returned. She went over to the computers and began typing. "We might be able to find our way if we fiddle with this thing."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" I frowned as I stepped onto the plate of the device.

"Nothing bad can happen if it goes wrong, right?" She pressed a random red button.

Suddenly, the air around me became alight with a blue glow. "Um, Kureha!?" I cried out in alarm, knowing that I was being teleported but had no idea where to.

Kureha also shared my panic. "Stay calm! I'll jump in right after-" Her voice was cut off by the teleporter sending me away.

Right in front of me was a set of stairs leading up to a machine. No threats immediately made themselves apparent, so I didn't reach for my gun. Instead, I analysed my surroundings. The space was large, enough to fit a few real life tanks inside. Three walkways formed a U shape behind me, overlooking the area. It would be a good place to retreat to if I was attacked.

With nothing else to do, I moved towards the machine. The sun was pouring inside several windows that were behind it, creating a natural aura to it. It looked similar to a cryostasis chamber. It was currently lying on its back. The blue glass hid whatever was inside.

Looking around for any sign of danger before continuing, I reached forward to wipe the dust from the glass. Without warning, the chamber lit up with a strange blue pattern, almost looking like data was flowing through it.

"PLAYER AUTHENTICATION…STARTING MASTER REGISTRATION."

A strange robotic voice filled the room. I couldn't help but stare at the chamber as the data continued to run through it. I was entranced.

"USERNAME: [YN]…REGISTRATION COMPLETE."

The chamber rose from its lying position to be almost upright. The blue glass suddenly became transparent, and inside was…a girl. I was confused for a second. Then I guessed this was some sort of quest NPC that would give me something for finding her. The NPC herself was clad in a white and purple battle suit that was skin tight. Her hair was white as snow, cut at shoulder height. The glass slowly began to rise, and as it fully opened, the NPC's eyes followed suit, revealing a calming purple.

She suddenly lifted away from her chamber, surrounded by the blue data that had been part of the chamber until her release. As the data disappeared, she fell from the air towards the ground. I reached forwards to catch her.

The gunshot rang through the entire room.

It didn't take long for the hum of a weapon to come from behind me. I turned to see a player, clad in black and grey, leaping towards me. A purple blade made of energy was behind him, ready to kill. Even though I had no way of defending myself, I spun around to stare directly at the player, protecting this NPC. In hindsight, this was a pretty dumb move, as most quest NPCs were immortal. But even so, my instinct told me to protect this girl. All this happened while the smoke from the bullet hitting the floor hadn't disappeared.

And yet, despite the intent of this player to go straight through me, all it took was one word.

"Master?"

* * *

 **Well then, another chapter down. I'd understand if you were a little confused why I'm just describing events from the game itself. This will hopefully be fixed soon as very soon, I'll be switching up the structure of the story.**

 **Thanks to a review by a guest user, I should probably clarify what I'm doing with the friendship and sleepover events. I will be writing out several friendship events. These will appear when an Area is complete. For example, once the Remnant Wastelands is complete, the first set will be released. Near the finale, the sleepover events will happen. I should also state that not all the gameverse characters will be present in this story. I love many of the characters, but one of the problems of the game is that there are too many character who have no purpose whatsoever. If you don't see your favourite character, then I'm sorry. I'm even omitting my favourite character as she isn't needed.**

 **Thank you to the person who reviewed. I probably wouldn't clarify anything about the events until it was too late. I'll probably use these Author's Notes to address reviews, so feel free to ask questions as well.**

 **Right, onwards and upwards as they say. Hopefully the wait for Chapter 3 won't be too long. I don't exactly know what I will be covering in the chapter but I'm hoping to at least get to the title card with the good old "Thrill, Risk, Heartless".**

 **Until next time, stay cool.**


	3. 3: Arfa-sys

**Hello again! I'm back with Chapter 3. Bit shorter than before but I always find it hard to make the story interesting when all the characters are doing is standing around, talking and emoting. Either way, enjoy and I'll see you below.**

 **[ArN] stands for Arfa-sys Name. This will only apply when the OC is addressing Arfa, otherwise she will be referred to as Arfa-sys.**

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Chapter 3

Arfa-sys

The purple blade was an inch from my neck. It could easily reach forwards and hit me, most likely draining my life because of my low stats. Which only begged the question: Why wasn't I dead?

A commotion came from up on the walkway, the place where the gunshot from earlier had come from. I didn't move my head, but I glanced up to see Kureha being held at gunpoint. Neither of us had a way out of this.

The player in front of me let out a sigh, the energy blade retracting into the handle. He looked up at Kureha and his partner. "Listen, we don't want to fight. It looks like we were too late, unfortunately." He sounded genuinely disappointed as he said the last word, but looked down at me with a smile. "It seems like this Arfa-sys has chosen your friend as its master."

I looked behind me at the NPC who was now fully awake and leaning on her arm. She looked between me and the player with a blank expression.

Kureha jumped over the railing of the walkway, gun still trained on the player that attacked me. "This person is the rare item?" Once beside me, she began looking over the NPC, or Arfa-sys as the player had called it. I rose from my crouched position and both me and Kureha took an arm each and helped the Arfa-sys onto her feet.

"Yeah. That's a player support AI, an Arfa-sys." The player looked heartbroken now. By this point, his partner had joined him, giving me an opportunity to look at them. The player that attacked me wasn't just restricted to black in his clothing. His hair and eyes shared the same colour. His partner was a lot brighter in appearance, orange hair reaching her lower back and opting for a white and red battle suit. The dark player sighed again. "Man, those things are so rare, there's barely any information on them. And I thought this tournament would be my opportunity to get one."

The girl in white nodded. "Too bad Kirito. Back to grinding until one drops."

Upon hearing his name, Kureha's eyes lit up like they had when we had seen Itsuki for the first time. "Kirito? As in, the photon sword user who climbed to the top of GGO's rankings in a month? That Kirito!?" I shook my head, not understanding what anyone was talking about. I quickly checked on the Arfa-sys, who hadn't moved from when we pulled her to her feet. Meanwhile, Kirito and his partner were having a disagreement about her nicknames.

"Anyway, this is my partner, Asuna." Kirito gestured to the girl beside him.

It was strange, but I swear I had heard their names somewhere else before.

Kureha's eyes were aglow still with admiration. "To think I almost shot someone that famous…" She then turned to the Arfa-sys. "Arfa-sys, I am your master."

"I am the Arfa System Type-X A2900-00. Master Registration has already been complete." Her tone was rather monotone, her eyes blank as they look to me. "[YN], you are my master."

I glanced at Kureha who was somewhere between furious and stunned. A pang of guilt hit me, knowing that I had stolen the reward I was supposed to help her claim. "I didn't do it on purpose." I knew my excuse wasn't going to calm her down.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Kureha cried out.

Kirito chuckled. "I bet if we beat you, nothing would happen. This Arfa-sys belongs to you now."

"You seem to know a lot Kirito." Asuna frowned, crossing her arms.

"Well, it's because the Arfa-sys called the player 'master' back then. Plus…no, it's nothing." Kirito trailed off.

While those two were discussing the ownership of the Arfa-sys, I was busy being reprimanded. "Why did you go ahead and register it!?" Kureha was right in my face. "You were supposed to be helping me get the reward!"

"I didn't-"

"Enough with the excuses!" She turned away, her hands gripping her hair. "I can't believe this!" She took a deep breath. "Alright then, if the Arfa-sys is yours, then we'll share it. After all, if you hadn't picked the right path, we might've missed out completely. So I'll let you off…this time." She returned to a less volatile state.

The Arfa-sys's eyes lit up for a second in response. "Kureha is Master's superior. Confirmed. Nice to meet you."

Kirito and Asuna turned away. "Well, I guess we'll be off." Kirito put up a hand in parting. "Still have to get first place. Maybe they'll let the top players get an Arfa-sys too." He laughed, as if knowing that'll never happen.

"Hopefully it'll be something Yui likes." Asuna muttered.

As they began walking away, Kureha cleared her throat. "Um, I'm Kureha. I plan to be one of the top players in GGO. That means next time we meet, I'll be gunning for you two."

A smirk appeared on Kirito's face while Asuna sighed at him. "You've got guts. Alright then Kureha, next time we meet, I'll go all-out against you and…" He looked at me, waiting for my name.

"I'm [YN]."

Kirito nodded. "I see." He walked towards me. "I want to ask you something. Why did you protect the Arfa-sys just then?"

I took a second to run it over in my mind before deciding on my answer. "I want to protect everyone. And if anyone threatened my friend's lives, I couldn't forgive them."

"I can respect that." Kirito nodded. "We'll definitely meet again one day. When that happens, let's do our best to kill each other."

Asuna waved. "Bye you two. And bye Arfa-sys." The Arfa-sys bowed as the two left us.

The room grew extremely quiet for a few seconds until the Arfa-sys began speaking again. "Main system 90% functional…100%... System check all clear. Start up complete." She placed her fists on her hips, a huge smile on her face. It was almost like a completely different person had taken over her. "Master, you can name me. Be warned, if you name me something weird, I'll explode!"

Kureha and I exchanged a look of confusion. "You…sound different." I looked at her eyes, noticing a glint of happiness and wonder there that was absent before.

"That's it Master! The Type-Xs are superior androids that come with their own personalities!" Arfa-sys puffed out her chest proudly.

"And I'm guessing I-we got the happy one." I chuckled.

Kureha nodded. "Why don't you name it? I'm happy with whatever you go with."

I raised my had to my chin in thought. Many names went through my head. I decided to break the silence for a second. "Momiji."

"Eh!? Wha-wha-wha-what do you think you're doing, calling her that!?" Kureha looked flustered.

"I was only joking." I laughed it off before nodding to myself. "[ArN]."

The Arfa-sys paused for a second. "Registration complete." A smile appeared on her face. "I'm glad you're more sensible than you look Master." I sighed while Kureha hid her giggle behind her hand, though she looked like they both were happy with the name. "As you are my first master, I'll give you a present! The best present for you…" She opened a menu and began scrolling through, humming to herself. "This one! No takebacks." She tapped a strange looking name, probably because it was backwards for me, and a small gun with a crossbow-like design appeared in her hand. Once I took it from her, I frowned as it couldn't be reloaded.

"What is this supposed to be?"

"It's an Ultimate Fibre Gun. The UFG."

I aimed it in front of me at the wall and pulled the trigger. To my surprise, a green beam of light came from the gun. To mine and Kureha's surprise, I was dragged by the beam once it made contact with the wall. It didn't take long for me to make contact with the wall, headfirst due to my shock. I fell onto my stomach, instinctively clinging my head, only to realise that there was nothing there, not even the numb sensation from the bullets.

"What is that!? I've never seen anything like that before!" I was a little hurt at the fact Kureha seemed more interested in the UFG rather than my wellbeing.

"My master is an anomaly, so I gave him an unknown weapon!" Arfa-sys smiled.

Kureha's eyes widened even further. "Does that mean…it's an unregistered weapon? That's not just rare, that's…super-rare! It's awesome." The note of jealousy returned.

"Yes, Type-Xs are awesome!" Arfa-sys claimed the compliment as hers. "I shall teach you how to properly use the UFG."

I rolled my eyes. "Finally, someone realised that I hit the wall."

We moved out of the room, finding a large chamber with a tall wall. A ladder allowed access to the top, which Arfa-sys and Kureha took up. I stayed at the bottom, UFG in hand.

"Master, when you pull the trigger, the beam will extend. If it makes contact with a surface, keeping hold of the trigger will reel in. Letting go will make the beam go away." Arfa-sys called down.

"So I can't swing with it?" I was disappointed.

"Of course not Master, that would be silly."

I aimed the UFG at the wall and pressed the trigger. The beam attached to the wall and I was pulled towards it. The force kept my legs behind me and despite my best efforts, the first thing to make contact was my face once again. I fell back down to square one again.

"We're going to be here a while." I heard Kureha sigh from the top of the wall.

Arfa-sys, however, seemed much more optimistic. "My master will do it! After all, I'm his Arfa-sys!"

It did take a while, until the end of the tournament in fact, but I managed to get the hang on it. I had to deactivate the UFG just before I hit the wall, and push myself upwards with my feet. I had done it successfully three times before we had the announcement that the tournament was ending.

"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me?" Kureha looked at my new tool. "I've got to bust my butt going up and down, and you can zip around like it's nobody's business."

"I think I can carry you up if you want." I suggested, knowing it could be possible.

Before Kureha could respond, Arfa-sys began clapping. "Well done Master, I knew you could do it!"

Kureha let out a sigh. "Well, as long as I can have a go, I suppose it's okay." She opened her menu and began scrolling. "I wonder where Kirito and Asuna placed on the rankings…"

"Are they your friends Master?" Arfa-sys tilted her head curiously.

I scratched the back of my head. "I wouldn't exactly say that…"

Kureha let out a cry of surprise. "They won!? No way. I guess we did get an Arfa-sys unit, so you were the real winner today [YN]."

"There's nothing rarer than a Type-X unit…I think. So please don't break me!" Arfa-sys's self praise dwindled for a slight moment but quickly switched back on.

A light began to form around the three of us, signalling that it was time to head back. I smiled, knowing that my first day in GGO was a successful one.

* * *

 **And there we go. Quickly I'll go over the reviews.**

 **Guest: I hope I can showcase their relationships develop well enough. But love doesn't just happen immediately after all. I'll make their feelings towards the OC as organic as possible.**

 **KathrynthePyro-bitch: Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying the story. Hopefully you'll continue to do so as I plan on making some changes to the plot, some minor and major. These first few chapters aren't exactly the most exciting after all.**

 **Thank you to those who reviewed. Please continue to do so, I like to know that I'm doing well, or if I'm not, what I can improve on. I'll hopefully have another chapter up by the end of** **February.**

 **Until then, stay cool!**


	4. 4: Beginnings

**Hello again! I'm back. This chapter is a bit short but hopefully it will begin to hint at the changes I begin to make. I'll share more below.**

 **Enjoy. By the way, for those who don't know, Takamine Momiji is Kureha's real name.**

* * *

Chapter 4

Beginnings

After the teleport animation was over, I found myself inside a large room. Despite the dark walls, the room was brightly lit. It was circular, with a raised platform in the middle that was accessible from four walkways converging on it. Four desks were on the outer wall, along with a set of terminals that were there for shopping for equipment and finally a teleporter. The room was currently packed with players and NPCs.

"Wow! There's so much stuff here!" Arfa-sys's eyes grew wide with wonder. Other players looked confused when Arfa-sys began staring. I couldn't help but smile at her childish curiosity.

Kureha pushed through the crowd and joined back up with the two of us, menu open and a smile on her face. "We did it!" She showed me her menu. I stared at it for a few seconds, confused as to what she was on about. She was pointing to our party, which had ranked in at 25. I checked my menu and saw we had been granted an enhancement material, 500,000 credits and an accessory ticket. We had also been labelled as the players who won the 'rare item'.

"Wow, I should be able to get some decent equipment now." I laughed nervously, not knowing how to handle the massive amount we had won from the event. "Oh, do you want that 4,000 back?"

"With the amount that we just got? It's fine." Kureha waved it off. "Honestly, it was a welcome gift."

I shrugged. "Just making sure."

"Master! Look what I found!" Arfa-sys came back with a familiar face.

"Hey. I see you made it back alive." Kirito put up a hand in greeting. Asuna was just behind him.

Kureha placed her hand on her hip. "Of course."

"Good. You won't ever catch up if you die in something like that." Kirito wore a cocky smile on his face. "Not that I plan on you catching up any time soon."

I sighed at the two. "Well, if we see you out in the field, I suppose we'll see." I began walking towards the doors, feeling their eyes on me. I made it outside and looked out at the safe area where I had first spawned.

The door opened behind me and Arfa-sys joined me. "Master, I'm very familiar with the SBC Glocken. I can show you around some places if you wish."

"I could do with some help. Kureha only had time to show me around the shops."

Arfa-sys nodded, turning around to face the building that we had just left. "This is the Governor's Office. It's where you can sign up for various tournaments like the one we were just in." She then grabbed my hand and begun pulling me away.

"Um, shouldn't we wait for Kureha?" I suggested.

Arfa-sys halted. "Right! Kureha is your superior after all." We took the short walk back up to the entrance. Kureha soon came out, looking around for us. "Kureha! Master insisted that we wait for you so we can explore the SBC Glocken together."

"Jeez, you don't have to wait on me to do everything." She sighed. "Well, I know quite a few places that could be useful in the future."

The duo began leading me. We went down an escalator that connected the Governor's Office to the rest of the SBC Glocken. I took note of a building on the right that looked rather isolated, despite neither of my guides pointing it out.

At the bottom, Kureha first showed me and Arfa-sys the shop where we had been earlier. I took the opportunity to buy a better gun, a submachine gun in place of the ray gun. It put a dent in my credits, but judging by the damage, this weapon was going to last a long time. I was then brought over to an NPC who was sliding two knives together. According to Kureha, I could come to him to appraise any unidentified items that I could find out in the field.

Next was the main teleport gate, located where I first stepped into this world. Upon stepping onto it, a window opened in front of me with one destination available, the Remnant Wastelands. I closed the window and stepped back, following Kureha towards the central building.

"You should have enough to buy yourself a home in here." Kureha stepped to the side and let me approach. As I did, a flash of light appeared in front of me and I collided with someone. I fell to the ground and shook my head, gaining my bearings again.

The person who I had hit got up quickly. "Apologies. I'm in a hurry." I only had time to see her silver hair and green and black outfit before she ran around the corner.

"Wow, another Arfa-sys Type-X!" Arfa-sys looked after the girl. "Master, can I quickly go after her?"

"Um, I guess." I was still a little out of sorts from the impact. Arfa-sys ran away after her counterpart and left me and Kureha alone.

"Wasn't she supposed to be showing you around?" Kureha frowned.

I shrugged. "I have you to show me now." I laughed as she sighed. I walked towards the door and my jaw dropped at the price. "250,000 credits?"

"You should be glad. It took me several weeks to get that." I let out a sigh before spending over half my remaining credits on a home. I selected the option called [YN]'s Home and the blue light appeared around me.

The home was simple yet functional. A bed sat in the corner of the room, although it looked rather rigid and uncomfortable. To the left of it was a TV, despite the fact that I never watched TV normally. It was currently on MMO Stream which was covering something called the Bullet of Bullets. In the centre of the room was a table which had a bare surface. On my left was a box and a terminal. Upon approaching the box, a window came up, displaying my inventory. I transferred some materials over to save some space.

Before I could turn my attention to the terminal, Kureha joined me. "Yeah, it's not great. But, it's something." She planted herself on my bed and let out a deep breath.

I smiled, opening the terminal. It was somewhere that I could learn skills. A skill called Omnia Vanitas caught my eye, and I bought and equipped it. I had enough for one more skill and got Power Form 1.

I sat myself on the edge of the table, the exhaustion of today catching up with me. Kureha kicked, rising into a sitting position. "Well, how was it?"

"It was fun." I couldn't keep the silly grin off my face. "And it was great seeing you after all this time."

Kureha hugged her knees and rested her chin on them. "Yeah. It was great to see you again [YN]. This time, something like moving won't stop us from seeing each other again." She laughed under her breath, before swinging her legs around to face me. "You know, I think we can do it. Become as strong as people like Kirito and Itsuki."

"I don't know if I can." I shook my head.

"You're good. Better than I could expect." Kureha jumped up, fist bumping the air. "Yeah, we could become the best!"

I decided to play along, standing up and nodding. "We can sure try."

"Well, we won't know until we do." Kureha extended a hand, closing her fist before extending her pinkie finger.

 _I watched as Momiji sat down beside me. "I'm moving away."_

 _The news was surprising and heart breaking. She had been my best friend for years, ever since elementary school. I bowed my head and bit my lip. "Will I see you again?"_

" _I don't know." She muttered under her breath. Suddenly, she jumped up, a smile on her face. "Yeah, of course we will. Somehow." Her smile was forced, but her words were sincere. "In fact, let's make a promise right now!" She closed her fist and extended her pinkie finger._

" _What's that?" I frowned._

" _It's a way of sealing a promise." Momiji grabbed my hand and pulled my pinkie finger while curling my other fingers, before wrapping her own pinkie around mine. "It's a promise. We'll see each other again. Someday."_

 _I nodded, smiling. "Yeah. It's a promise."_

I returned the gesture and Kureha smiled. "It's a promise. We'll become strong in this world together."

"Well, our last promise worked. So, it's a promise."

"Welcome to the Gun Gale Online [YN]."

* * *

 **Something that always rubbed me the wrong way was how Kirito just joined up with you near the beginning of the game. I thought it would be more appropriate for him to be a rival to the OC rather than his "other half" so to speak. And with being a rival, it would help show some differences. Of course, Kirito will still join up with the OC, just not as soon as in the game.**

 **I don't have any questions to answer this time, but if you have any, feel free to review. Criticism and questions are appreciated.**

 **Hope you enjoyed. I'll probably start working on Chapter 5 very soon. It will probably jump around a bit because I'm planning on a character entering _much_ sooner than he did in the actual game (Honestly, why was he part of the marketing if he was there for such a short time). If you can guess who I'm on about from that hint, I hope you'll look forward to him.**

 **Until next time, Stay Cool.**


	5. 5: Into the Fields

**Hello again.**

 **I really enjoyed writing this chapter, so I hope this one will be a good one for all of you too. Well, I won't keep you here for long. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 5

Into the Field

I woke up, my avatar lying on the bed in my room. I stood up and stretched. It had been a long day at school and I was looking forward to actually getting into the field and earning some credits.

"Welcome back Master!"

I jumped at the sound of the voice. Arfa-sys was standing there, fists on hips. "[ArN]? What are you doing here?"

"This is my Master's room, and I am my Master's Arfa-sys!" Arfa-sys beamed. "Of course I'd be here. In other words, I am an Artificial…Financial…uhm…Advisor? Anyway, I'm an Arfa-sys Type-X!"

Her little stumble was funny, so I couldn't resist. "Try saying that one more time."

Her eyes narrowed a bit at my tease, before she shook it off. "Anyway, I am a highly intelligent support AI with an impenetrable treasury." I frowned, confused. "Oh, you haven't done the tutorial yet. You need to learn how to use me efficiently. From credit and item management to cleaning your room and finding you friends."

"First off, why can't you be there in real life? Second, I don't need help finding friends." I sighed.

"Master, your friends list is only one." I felt my soul die a little. "So, is there anything you'd like to know?"

"Maybe tell me where I should go or what to do."

"Of course! After all, when you're out in the field, bullets will be flying everywhere. But don't worry, no one can be hurt in the safe zone. And I'll be with you wherever you go. We'll get everyone with a whoosh! Ka-pow! Dakka dakka!" With every sound, she make a gun with her fingers and pretended to shoot. "It seems you know about skills, but when you level up, you can increase your stats and mine through the menu. If you need more details, just ask me." She opened her menu. "Let's see…oh no!"

"Is something wrong?" I opened my menu, seeing that I had several Customization Points, or CP. I looked at Arfa-sys's menu and frowned. "There's nothing wrong, is there?"

"My stats are low! I'm next to useless!" I looked between hers and my stats, seeing no difference. "Missile launching, fund increasing, cracking hilarious jokes…all of them are gone. Oh, hang on." She opened her menu. "It's because you're a beginner Master. I'm functioning perfectly normal. No issues here. All systems go!"

I swore I could feel a knife in my chest. "Could you maybe hold back on the fact that I'm new?"

"It's not your fault Master. Please don't feel bad. Since I'm a support AI, I can't be stronger than my Master." Arfa-sys closed her menu. "It's okay, we'll become stronger together Master!"

That reminded me. "We should meet up with Kureha."

"Sure!"

Outside was lively. Several players were gearing up to head out into the field, others just leaning against the banister and chatting. I scratched my head as I looked around for Kureha, but she was nowhere to be seen. I opened my menu and checked my friends list, seeing Kureha was online. One message later and she said she was coming.

Arfa-sys began looking around, her eyes wide and a large smile on her face. "It's so nice to see so many people here."

"Have you never been here? This game is rather popular."

"I have been in a similar place, but the only people there were only other Arfa-sys units." I raised an eyebrow in curiosity, but soon Kureha arrived. "Kureha, over here!" Arfa-sys waved at Kureha.

"How long does it take to get back from school?" Kureha sighed, looking annoyed. "Anyway, you ready to head out into the field?"

"Do you have a weapon [ArN]?" I looked behind me to see Arfa-sys with a mini-gun on her back. "Um, n-nevermind."

"What about gadgets?" Kureha asked.

Arfa-sys nodded. "I have a First Aid Kit and Smoke Grenade, perfect for helping my master in any combat situation. I also have a range of support skills already unlocked."

We walked towards the teleport gate while Arfa-sys was listing off the skills she had, when a familiar player with silver hair knocked against me while running past. "Apologies, I am in a hurry." She continued running.

I looked back at her, curious. "Hey, [ArN]? Did you ever catch up with that person?"

"I did, but she was busy talking with her master."

Surprised, I watched as the person went around a corner. "That's an Arfa-sys?"

"Yep, and a Type-X too!"

Kureha nodded. "I'm not surprised more are popping up. Come on. After we've been out and earned some money, I need to show you some more stuff."

We stepped onto the teleporter and a menu popped up in front of me. I selected the only option there, Remnant Wasteland and a blue light surrounded me once again.

It was time to fight.

The world was…drab at best. There was no sense that this world had possibly once been green and full of life. Well, life that wasn't trying to kill you. Mud was the only thing on the ground until it hit the stone that made up a city in the distance. Rocky mountains lined the sides of the world, and the muddy landscape was dotted with rock formations, making pillars and archways. I couldn't see beyond the city, but gunfire indicated that was more beyond it. I knew this world was post-apocalyptic, but this was worse than I was expecting.

Kureha crouched down and pulled out a map. Small red dots were pinging on the map, glowing brighter in synchronisation with the gunfire in the distance. These were obviously other players out in the field. There were other red dots, but were remaining a solid crimson red. Upon looking towards one, I saw it was an enemy.

"If you're going to level up, you'll want to head into the dungeons." Kureha pointed to several points of the map that had light blue lines. "This is the teleport gate back to town, but you can just use your map to go back, assuming you aren't being attacked." She sighed. "I feel like I'm doing your Arfa-sys's job for her."

"It's okay Kureha. I can tell Master likes to spend time with you." Arfa-sys smiled.

A pink tint appeared on Kureha's cheeks. She closed the map and took out her SMG. "Anyway, shall we? If we're lucky, we'll be able to fight a boss today."

"As long as you don't do all the work." My AR appeared in my hands. I checked the ammo, seeing I had enough for at least an hour of fighting. "Let's go."

Half an hour later

The scorpion hissed as it slammed its tail into the ground where Kureha had been moments ago. She landed on the ground from her flip and fired into the tail tip. "Stun!" Arfa-sys's gun glowed yellow and shot towards the Wanderer Eater. The massive creature fell down, electricity crackling all over its body, its weak point open. I jumped in and fired point blank into the stinger. The last of the health bar depleted and the scorpion's body glowed before bursting into a shower of bright lights.

I smiled as I levelled up again. Kureha placed her SMG on her belt and smiled. "Please tell me that boss was supposed to take five minutes."

"No, but nice job. Not many players don't get to fight a boss on their first day, even if it is just a field boss."

"Well, I was being helped by a pro."

Kureha rolled her eyes. "I'm not that good. I'm only thirty levels ahead of you."

I shook my head and opened my menu. I saw a brand new accessory that I could equip. It had one perk on it. 'Avoid death if your HP is over 90%'. I equipped it, a pair of wings materialised on my back. "This doesn't look great." I pressed an eye icon beside the accessory and they vanished.

A gunshot sounded and hit me in the back of the head. My health decreased to near death. Kureha grabbed my arm and pulled me back one of the many rock formations. Arfa-sys panicked and dived behind a bush.

"There wasn't anyone here before." Kureha looked at her map. A red dot was fading away in the city, implying the shot had come from there.

"It's lucky I found that accessory then." I used my First Aid Kit and my HP slowly started to rise.

"Master! There's several players approaching from the city area!" Arfa-sys yelled from her spot.

I lifted my head enough to confirm her warning. Kureha gritted her teeth. "Tarako, at a time like this. Should've guessed he wouldn't be happy about yesterday." She took out a grenade and passed it to me. I placed it on my belt and reloaded my AR.

"[ArN] still has that smoke grenade right?" Kureha asked.

"Hiding, are you Kureha?" Tarako chuckled. "Oh well. Light it up boys." Several pops came from the direction they were. Within seconds, the ground around where we had been was torn apart. Unfortunately for them, we had already moved, under the cover of smoke. Kureha fired a bullet at the group, hitting one of them and turning them blue, before firing two rockets, skipping the reload by using a skill called Tactical Roll. She managed to knock one of the gunmen off their feet. Arfa-sys stayed in the back and started using her support skills, such as Power Shot and Healing Bullet, to buff Kureha who was going to be in the thick of it.

Bullets began flying at Kureha's position. She reloaded her rocket launcher before switching guns. Opening her menu, she used Trigger Happy, before peaking out and firing at the group. A loud crack sounded as a sniper bullet struck the ground next to her. "I'm pinned down. Are you ready yet?"

"Give me a few seconds. It's a little hard to avoid this sniper and the enemies." I aimed the UFG at the top of the building and fired. I landed relatively without harm. I was right above Tarako's group. "I'm ready."

"Bombs away!"

I activated the Plasma Grenade and let it drop. Kureha lobbed a Frag Grenade and rolled out, firing a rocket. The three explosions caused chaos among the group. I jumped down. "[ArN]!" The bullet hit me and I glowed green. I hit the ground and rolled to lessen the impact. The nearest player to me had a magazine put in him.

His HP moved into the red but stayed above zero.

He turned to me and flashed a smile, sending a volley of bullets at me. A few hit, dropping my HP to low. I used my skill, Omnia Vanitas, to slid back into the shadows. In combination with the UFG, I managed to get out of sight of the group.

I pressed my fingers against my ear. "I couldn't kill any of them Kureha."

"Got that. But they're scattered now." Kureha responded. "If we need to make a break for it, we should have a higher chance of survival."

"Are we retreating?" Arfa-sys yelled over the gunfire.

"Not yet. We need to thin out the group. Otherwise they're just going to shoot us in the back. With less numbers they should cut their losses." Kureha sighed. "Alright, [YN], I need you to guide some of them towards me. [ArN], I need you-"

"Please don't call me by that name. Only my master can call me by that name."

"This really isn't the time to be arguing over names!" I could imagine Kureha's eye roll. "Either way, I need you to be ready to heal [YN]."

"What are you planning this time?" I was worried.

"You can survive anything as long as your HP is over 90% right?"

I was really worried now.

Tarako's group seemed to be catching their bearings, so I ran in, firing rapidly with my SMG. The few players near me began firing back, which I dodged with Omnia Vanitas. I stopped firing to allow them to approach.

"Heal!" Kureha's voice was followed by a green energy surrounding me. The sound of boots crunching on the ground came from my left and right as two grenades rolled to my feet. "Oh."

Explosions went off around me. My HP went straight into the red. The other players around me weren't so lucky. Their bodies exploded into red polygons. The dust began to settle around me. I looked at where Kureha was, about to yell in shock at her plan, when I saw her lying on the ground, a red mark on her chest and her HP low.

The crack of a sniper reminded me of the presence of our distant attacker. I used my First Aid Kit and ran over to Kureha, dragging her behind cover. Arfa-sys joined us. "Master, there's only five players left. We could make a run for it."

"We can't now. We're all in one place and the sniper knows where we are." Kureha healed herself, peaking around the rock. I could tell by her expression that it wasn't good, most likely the group approaching us.

"You did well Kureha. You cost me a lot of credits over the past two days." Tarako chuckled. "But patience is a virtue."

I opened my map and frowned. A player had died a fair ways off, around the location of the sniper.

I heard a body fall, yet the gunshot didn't come. I heard Tarako's group cry out in surprise. Curious, we all peaked around the corner and saw the group was down to three players. All of them were panicking. I looked at Kureha for answers, only to see the same confused look on her face.

The other two players were shot from somewhere. I couldn't tell where as there was no sound from any gun. Tarako panicked and ran into the city. "Come on, let's get out of here." Kureha grabbed mine and Arfa-sys's arm and began pulling us towards the Teleport Gate.

Tarako panted as he glanced around the corner. "What the hell are you!? There's no way you're new, but I've never heard of you."

"I am new to this…game." A voice rang through the alleyway. The way he said the word 'game' made it sound like a lie. "But I'm not here to play. I'm here to show everyone what true power is."

"True power? What the hell are you on about?"

Red eyes appeared in the darkness. "I wanted more of a crowd, but I might not get another chance like this. No matter. Whispers of my name will spread throughout this world."

Tarako began firing at the red eyes, receiving a single wound in return. He ran out of bullets and waited for this player to kill him.

A shock ran through his body. His eyes widened and his breaths became more ragged. He felt like his heart was going to explode, and then his avatar disconnected.

"Thank you Tarako. You proved to be an excellent test subject." Smoke blew out of the metal mask as the red eyes blended back into the darkness.

* * *

 **Well, the first major gunfight. Any feedback would be appreciated. I wanted to highlight the tactical side of Kureha, who never really had any moments to showcase this in the game, despite Itsuki making a point of telling her this in their first meeting.**

 **Yeah, the OC is kind of weak, and that accessory was a little well timed, but they're supposed to be lucky. So I thought I'd use that. As the story progresses, the OC will level up and be able to take on anyone in a fair fight...maybe. Not to give anything away now ;)**

 **And yes, that was Death Gun. Personally, I don't think he got enough time dedicated to him in the game. So I'm making him a much more integral part of this story. You'll see either next chapter or the next the impact he has on the world of GGO. Also, don't worry. I won't tease Zeliska forever by putting Daisy in every chapter.**

 **Reviews:**

 **RavenKing77: Thank you. I'm now starting to move away from the game now. I'm still sticking to the game as a guideline, but it'll be like Fate sort of, where the event could've played out this way, or another way, but ultimately the story comes to the same conclusion, just the characters change. If that makes sense.**

 **Thank you for reading once again. As always, criticism is appreciated. Until next time, Stay Cool.**


	6. 6: The Uncrowned Queen

**Surprise! I know, it hasn't even been a week. But I got a sudden burst of motivation to write. Don't worry, this chapter isn't any shorter, or rushed because of this. I usually spend about a day in total writing and proof reading, just this time it came all in one instead of over a couple of weeks.**

 **Either way, hope you enjoy. See you at the bottom.**

* * *

Chapter 6

The Uncrowned Queen

The SBC Glocken was a little less crowded than when we had left. I breathed a sigh of relief. Kureha was yawning, alerting me to her tiredness. I looked at the clock in the top right of my menu and my eyes widened. "Is it that late already?"

Kureha opened her menu. "Oh shoot! I need to get up early tomorrow!" She panicked. "Um, I was going to show you around the Governor's Office, but I need to get going."

"It's fine. [ArN] can show me around." I shrugged. "Will you be on tomorrow?"

"I need to go somewhere, so I don't think so. It'll be late when I get back." Kureha sighed. "Be sure to get some more levels while I'm gone."

I laughed nervously, glancing at my 9 levels. "I'll do my best." Kureha waved before disappearing. I turned to Arfa-sys who was bent over, breathing dramatically. "Hey, are you alright?"

Arfa-sys shot up, fists on hips. "Of course! Anyway, what are you going to do now Master?"

"I'll log off for tonight. But tomorrow, I'll spend the afternoon levelling up." I opened my menu. "I'll see you then [ArN]."

"Good night Master!"

The black filter of the Amusphere appeared before my eyes. I sat up on my bed and looked around my room. I looked down at the floor and sighed. "What the hell happened out there?" The players suddenly falling dead. I guess it was another player, but why would they target the players that had the upper hand, rather than us? I shook it off, turning on my light. After all, tomorrow was going to be a day where I could start to catch up with Kureha.

A day later

Arfa-sys welcomed me back once I woke up. I got up, walked over to the terminal and checked my skills. There wasn't much there still, but I bought a skill called Sliding Shot 1 and Healing Field 1. We headed outside to the Glocken.

"Master, do you want to head up to the Governor's Office? Kureha suggested it yesterday." Arfa-sys pointed to the large cone that was split in half. I nodded and we headed up the escalator. "It's good for signing up to big tournaments. The third Bullet of Bullets is coming up soon."

"What exactly is it?" I looked up at a building on the left. Several players were up there, including some of Tarako's group. I sighed as I saw them beginning to make their way down from the building once they saw me.

"Many people shorten it to BoB. It's a tournament where you fight to be the last player standing against 29 other players. It's a battle royale showdown!" Arfa-sys punched the air. "If you're efficient Master, you could enter and hold your own."

"I'll think about it."

We reached the Governor's Office and headed in. It was fairly empty. Arfa-sys led me to an NPC in the middle of the room. "This is an Arfa-sys Type B. They aren't as awesome as Type Xs, but they can still help you with a bunch of stuff, like your ranking and trading."

"Cool." I heard someone behind me and turned. It was one of Tarako's friends. "What do you want?"

"Where's Tarako?" The player looked pissed. Meanwhile, I was confused. "He's not come back from our duel with you yesterday."

"I don't know. Maybe you should ask the player who was sniping you." I tried to back away but my back hit against another player. I was surrounded.

"Master-" Arfa-sys was blocked from reaching me.

A pit grew in my stomach. These players outnumbered me in both quantity and quality. Even though your HP couldn't drop in a safe zone, it would still hurt if they started pounding away. I gritted my teeth, ready for the incoming attack.

"Hey, what's going on here?" A large man approached from the entrance. He was wearing a thick blue military coat and a brown hat, brown pants and arctic combat boots.

"Our leader went missing, and this kid knows where he is." The player in front of me turned angrily to face the newcomer. "Who do you think you are, getting in our business?"

"Bazalt Joe. Who do you think you are, threatening a new player?" Bazalt Joe chuckled. "If your leader got beat by this kid, then maybe he quit from shame."

The player got redder in the face. "You have no right-"

"If you want to go a few rounds, then I'll happily oblige!" Bazalt Joe loosened his shoulder muscles and got into a fighting stance. The player ran at him. I couldn't tell how, but this player soon found himself flying backwards across the floor. Bazalt Joe already ready for the next unfortunate person to challenge him.

A voice rang throughout the Governor's Office. "That will do."

Another player began approaching. She was smiling casually, pushing her white hair behind her ear on one side and let the rest drape over the opposite shoulder. Her deep red eyes were fixated on the other players. Her outfit was a light shade of purple and white, but it didn't really seem like a combat suit, thanks to the excessive amount of skin on display. Behind her, I could see the Arfa-sys unit that my own Arfa-sys had chased after that one time. Whoever this player was, everyone froze as she approached.

She stopped beside Bazalt Joe and glanced at Tarako's group. "Now, this fight is really unnecessary. Your friend may well be taking a little break."

The player that had been knocked away by Bazalt Joe got up and looked away, ashamed. "Sorry." They all began to wander away.

The female player sighed. "How many times have I warned you Joe? You can't go starting fights around town."

"They were ganging up on this newbie." Bazalt Joe shrugged. "I couldn't leave him to get pummelled Zeliska."

Zeliska smiled. "Was it the player, or the Arfa-sys?" Bazalt Joe opened his mouth to reply, but his words seemed to get stuck in his throat.

"Either way, I appreciate the help." I bowed towards Bazalt Joe. Now that I had a chance to look at him properly, I could see that he had one eye stitched shut, scar tissue all over the closed eyelid.

He nodded. "Just be careful newbie. I suspect I'll see you around. B-bye Arfa-sys." He walked away, looking slightly flustered.

I turned to Zeliska and bowed. "Thank you as well."

"Oh don't worry about it dear." She gave me a smile. "I couldn't let players bully a cutie like you." My heart skipped a beat, until I realised she was looking over my shoulder at Arfa-sys. "I've heard rumours about you, [YN]. Apparently Lady Luck has taken quite a liking to you. Getting an Arfa-sys Type X on your first day. They're very popular." She opened her menu. "Oh boy, look at the time. I needed to do a quest today. Hey, you wouldn't happen to be free would you? I would bring my Daisy, but I don't like taking her out into battle. It's no place for a girl like her."

"Master, I'm fully able to support you in the field." Zeliska's Arfa-sys, Daisy, sighed.

"Well, we do need some levels." I looked at Arfa-sys who nodded. "And I think we're done in here."

Zeliska nodded. "Wonderful. Do bring your Arfa-sys along. What's her name?"

"I have not been given a name outside of the one Master uses, and only he can use that name." Arfa-sys did her fist on hips pose.

"Oh? It seems your Arfa-sys is very fond of you." Zeliska began leading us towards the Teleport Gate and put a finger on her chin in thought. "Hmm…what's your number?"

"Arfa-sys Type X A290-00."

Zeliska paused in thought. "Aru…no, that's too boyish…how about Rei?"

"Sure!" Arfa-sys smiled.

I shrugged. "If she's happy, then I'm happy."

We teleported to the Remnant Wastelands, Daisy wishing us the best. I followed Kureha's example and took out my map. There were very few players, only about three groups. "Where exactly are we going?" I looked up at Zeliska who leaned over my shoulder and pointed at the dungeon nearest us. "My friend advised I be at least Level 15 before entering."

"You'll do fine there, as long as you can shoot and follow instructions." Zeliska retrieved her weapon, a shotgun, and began walking down the hill.

A squad had recently come through the field, so there was little to no enemies along the way. I took the opportunity to use the First Aid Kit and check Arfa-sys's stats. She had put some points into INT and VIT, probably to help support through skills and being able to survive longer. I was putting most of my points into STR and DEX so I could equip stronger weapons. I was surprised when I saw my LUC was at 1 point, seeming as everything seemed to be going my way.

The entrance of the dungeon was empty of hostiles. Zeliska frowned. "Oh dear. It seems like there's another group inside."

I groaned inwardly. "I really hope they're friendly."

We went inside. The dungeon itself had light brown walls and a grey floor. It had a very similar to the first dungeon I had walked into during the tournament. The only thing that seemed to differentiate them was the colour scheme.

The first room was cleared. In the second room was a large steel door that was locked by two red lights, and two doors on the left and right. I could hear fighting on the left. Zeliska must've heard it too, leading us to the right. "Oh Rei, could you buff both of us?"

"Sure!" Arfa-sys activated her Power Shot and hit both of us.

"Thank you." Zeliska opened the door and ran inside. I followed and saw a room with three levels, each one with enemies. The lowest floor, which we were on, had several drones patrolling the airspace. The second had several enemies with assault rifles. The highest floor was home to three snipers, which had already began aiming at us. "[YN], go around the side and jump up to those snipers and deal with them. Rei, please heal if one of us gets low."

"Right!" Me and Arfa-sys said in unison. I could see a set of stairs connecting each floor, but to get up them, I would have to go through the assault enemies. I grabbed my UFG and shot it up at the wall, pushing off it with my feet and landing on the highest level. The snipers immediately turned their attention to me. I took out my AR and used Sliding Shot, moving quickly towards the nearest enemy. Once colliding, I felt my body automatically flip away from the target. The sniper sat at half health, so I aimed my gun up and fired point blank into its face. The first sniper fell.

The second one had time to fire, but I was ready, diving away from the Bullet Line. I began to return fire, getting the health down by a quarter before the third sniper began covering for its ally. The bullet hit my leg, doing just under a third of my health. I quickly reloaded before finishing off the second sniper. I switched guns to my SMG and used my Sliding Shot again, which had recharged. The third sniper was killed instantly, flying backwards onto the lower level.

I looked down and saw no enemies. The drones above us had already been taken out by Arfa-sys, who was waving her hand over an overheated minigun. Zeliska was making her way up the steps, shotgun resting on her shoulder. "Well, you performed you job marvellously."

"Thanks. They weren't too bad." I reloaded my SMG, quickly checking my ammo, making a mental note to refill once I got back to Glocken.

"Oh, a lot of enemies can be easy, even if they're several levels above you." Zeliska smiled. "Players on the other hand, that's who you need to watch out for. Many will want to hunt down new players so they can get easy materials."

"Yeah, I've had experience with that already." I sighed.

"If you die to any enemies, you keep all the stuff you've earned. But if you get killed by a player, you lose half the stuff you've collected during that visit out to the field." She opened the next door revealing a room with a bridge over a lower level where the exit was. "Bear that in mind."

"Wow, that's so useful. Thank you Zeliska." Arfa-sys bowed. "Master, I advise running away from players and getting killed by enemies."

"I'm not going to run away every time." I sighed. "Besides, if we kill them, we get some of their stuff."

"Oh, you've got a lot more guts than I expected." Zeliska smiled.

More enemies spawned. Zeliska put her hand up casually to tell us to stop. She proceeded to slowly more around the edge of the room and dropped to a lower level. I frowned, not sure what she was doing. Somehow, she managed to make her way down without triggering any of the enemies to attack. I began to follow her example, hugging the wall. Sure enough, none of the enemies tried attacking. Arfa-sys got through and we slipped through the door where a switch, box and teleporter stood.

"How did we do that?" I looked back into the room where all the enemies had despawned.

"It's an exploit several players have used to skip rooms." Zeliska sighed. "Try not to use it too often, okay [YN]?"

I nodded. Zeliska pressed the button while I opened the box. I got a couple hundred bullets for my SMG and AR. We stepped into the teleporter and arrived back at the entrance. The steel door had one green light now. I was ready to head left but Zeliska stopped me. It was then I remembered the other group and waited.

It took a minute, but soon the other red light turned green and the door slowly opened. The sound of teleporting came from behind us and we turned to see Kirito, Asuna and two other players. "Huh? Oh, hey [YN]."

"Kirito." I was immediately ready to fight, remembering our promise last time we met.

"You know him Kirito?" The girl in a dark green outfit with white chest armour and boots asked. Her blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and a white circlet was on her forehead. I noticed the AR in her hands.

"Yeah. This is the guy me and Asuna met during the tournament a couple of days ago." Kirito seemed rather relaxed. "So where's Kureha?"

I shrugged. "Not here today."

Kirito looked disappointed. "Too bad Kirito. Guess you won't be fighting today." Asuna smiled.

I let out a sigh of relief, relaxing. "Oh, so you all know each other." Zeliska let her shotgun rest on her shoulder. "In that case, would you be interested in helping us out in the boss room?"

The four looked at each other. "Sure." Kirito shrugged. "Oh, this is Leafa and Sinon." He first pointed to the blonde girl and then the other player, a girl with short blue hair and a sniper suit made of three different shades of blue. True to her attire, she had a rather large sniper on her back.

The seven of us headed into the boss room. I was still a little tense. Kirito pushed me slightly with his arm. "Don't worry. I'm not going to fight you now. I want to you fight both you and Kureha. After all, your friends are part of your strength." He chuckled. "Besides, I'm not feeling confident that I could take on the Uncrowned Queen right now."

The name rang a bell. I began to search my mind for it. "Oh, she's the one who keeps stealing Itsuki's stuff."

Zeliska laughed. "I have stolen a lot of Itsuki's stuff. He seems to get plenty of stuff himself though."

We entered the boss room. It was a square space, with floor pillars near the corners to make an inner and outer square to between, enforced by several barriers on each side that were tall enough to crouch behind to take cover.

The middle of the room began to glitch. Then a massive creature spawned in. It was a lizard-like creature, standing on its back legs. Metal armour covered its back and face, red eyes glowing from behind the armour. A large battle axe was grasped in its short arms, long enough to reach a metre in front of it. It leaned back and roared.

A name appeared above it, along with three health bars. The Angry Berserker.

* * *

 **So, there's Zeliska. My main goal with her is to allow her to join the group much earlier. There is a reason, but that's a secret that I'll keep for now. In the original story, I never thought she had a good enough role, even though she's supposed to be the rival love interest. The game really should've spent more time with her.**

 **Either way, next chapter will be the Angry Berserker. I won't be showcasing every dungeon, not even all the bosses. Mostly because there's too many to describe accurately and the bosses can blend together (Manhunter and Abyss Guide, I'm looking at you). I'm doing this fight to develop Zeliska, and to establish why Kirito and his group are some of the top players. But I'm going to stop there before I get ahead of myself.**

 **No reviews today. I wrote too quickly. Still, any criticism is appreciated. Thank you to everyone who's reviewed so far. I'm glad you're enjoying.**

 **Until next time (which probably won't be as quick...probably). Stay Cool**


	7. 7: A Worthy Rival

**Someone save me. I've been writing too much XD**

 **Hello again. Yes, Chapter 7 only 4 days later. This one's a little shorter than my previous chapters. This is the problem with getting very little sleep. You just end up writing and writing and writing...**

 **See you at the bottom.**

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Chapter 7

A Worthy Rival

The Angry Berserker gripped the battle axe in both hands, beginning its approach towards us. A purple glow came from my right, Kirito bringing his sword backwards, the blade horizontal. His body began pulsating before he suddenly shot forwards. A cone of air appeared at the tip of his blade, tearing through the atmosphere. The blade stabbed into the boss and left a massive mark in the fleshy chest.

The battle axe suddenly went into an upwards arc, slashing across Kirito's chest and sending him flying backwards. He gritted teeth as he landed hard. "Sinon, take aggro!"

The boss glowed blue as Arfa-sys hit it with an Armour Break Shot. I noticed Zeliska was already running around the room, placing something on the wall. "[YN], if you get chance, bring him over here." She pointed to the part on the wall. I nodded and began firing at the boss. Sinon had already taken aggro thanks to the damage that her sniper was doing. The boss's first bar was already down at half.

Asuna healed Kirito who immediately went straight back into the fray. Leafa joined in with her own sword, which had a green glow instead of purple. Both of them began using a skill which hit four times before a square of red came from the point of impact.

The Angry Berserker drew back and roared, a red glow appearing all over its body. It grasped the battle axe in front of it, leaning back on its heels and began spinning rapid. Kirito and Leafa were sent flying backwards, slamming into the door. Their HP went down into the red almost immediately. It took me a moment to realise that the boss was coming straight for me. I panicked, using Omnia Vanitas to move to the other side of the room. The Angry Berserker stopped its attack, and suddenly ran at me. I got ready to dodge out of the way when a grenade went off on the wall.

The room shook as the boss fell forwards, collapsing right in front of me. I began firing at it point blank in the head. My ears began to hurt with the loud pitched noise that signalled that I was doing critical damage. "Move!" Zeliska's call gave me enough time to get some distance between me and it. The boss rose to its feet and the red glow disappeared. "The boss is weaker to heavy impact weaponry. Grenades, shotguns and AMR snipers."

"Sinon, use conceal. You and Zeliska do most of the damage. The rest of us will take aggro. Use grenades whenever possible." Asuna explained concisely and understandably.

I reloaded my AR and switched to my SMG. I didn't have any grenades, but I could still do damage by hitting the head. My SMG had a lot less ammo, but it was my stronger weapon.

Kirito charged in, back to full health and swinging as hard as he could. I could see his friends sigh, making me smile. He did seem like the type of guy to not care about his health, just how quickly he could defeat the enemy. The Angry Berserker drew back the battle axe again, swinging again in an upwards arc. Kirito dodged backwards using Omnia Vanitas, a cocky grin on his face. That grin turned to a look of sheer panic as the battle axe was brought down on him, the boss following up with an over the head strike. The battle axe hit him, his second dodge already gone. A shockwave came from the point of impact, stunning everyone for a second and sending Kirito flying backwards.

Arfa-sys brought out her minigun and began firing. Asuna joined her, both of them taking aggro away from Kirito. I ran around the edge of the room and used Sliding Shot when I could see its face, firing rapidly into the weak spot. The boss turned its attention to me, but Leafa to jump in and using a skill that made the ground around the boss set ablaze, before switching to her sword and rapidly stabbing into the boss, a whole barrage of red spikes appearing around the sword to create a spectacular light show.

The Angry Berserker glowed red again. It began spinning around again, this time hitting me in the process. I survived the hit thanks to my accessory. I recovered in time to see the boss going straight at Asuna and Arfa-sys. Zeliska whistled at me from behind a pillar, throwing a Sticky Grenade at me. I lobbed it at the floor in front of the Angry Berserker. The crack of a sniper rifle filled the room, the bullet striking the grenade and sending a pillar of smoke upwards. The boss fell forwards again.

"Weapon Arts!" Kirito yelled. Kirito, Asuna, Leafa and Sinon suddenly started glowing with a strange aura. The air around them almost seemed to glitch. Asuna suddenly began using skills at a rapid pace, much faster than it should've been possible. Kirito and Leafa charged forwards, their swords carrying them up into the sky and down, hitting the boss multiple times with four of those red squares from earlier stacked on top of each other. A final bullet buried into the boss.

The Angry Berserker rose up and roared a final cry of anger. It lifted up the battle axe in one last attempt to kill. I noticed it was targeting the ground between Kirito and Leafa, the shockwave likely to hit both of them. I aimed at the eye and started firing, trying to draw aggro. I succeeded. The Angry Berserker turned towards him. I tried to use Omnia Vanitas, only to find it was still in cooldown…and the Angry Berserker was bringing the battle axe down on top of me.

My vision went black and a screen popped up in front of me.

 **YOU ARE DEAD.**

I found myself back at the Governor's Office. I looked around and groaned. "Oh come on!" My cry of anguish drew the attention and chuckles of many onlookers. I guess this was a common thing to happen to new players. Kureha was right, I needed to be stronger to take on a boss.

I opened my menu and looked through my stats. I blinked several times to check I wasn't seeing things. Somehow, I had managed to still get rewards from that boss fight including the EXP.

"Master, are you okay!?" Arfa-sys appeared from the Teleport Gate and ran over. "You exploded after that boss hit you."

"I suppose you did warn us you're under levelled." Zeliska joined us.

"I'm fine. I still got the rewards somehow." I shrugged.

Arfa-sys stood proudly. "That's because I picked up your rewards for you. As your Arfa-sys, I can grant you certain benefits like that."

"Really? Thanks."

Kirito and Asuna approached. "Hey, sorry about that." Kirito scratched the back of his head. "I had no idea that boss had a desperation move."

I waved it off. "It's fine. Oh yeah, Zeliska, did you do what you wanted to do?"

Zeliska nodded. "Yes. I must thank you [YN]. It's a shame you had died at the end there. I don't have a Resurrection Kit."

"And because you weren't in a party with us, me and Kirito couldn't use ours." Asuna sighed.

"What's a Resurrection Kit?" I frowned.

"It's a gadget that you can acquire from a tournament. It allows you to revive anyone in your party if it's charged." Arfa-sys explained. I looked at her, impressed that she was actually able to explain something before someone else. "Was that the reward that you got from the tournament when Master met you?"

Kirito nodded.

Zeliska smiled. "Well, I need to get back to Daisy. The poor thing will be worrying. I'll send you a message later [YN]." She winked at me before heading off. I waved goodbye and Arfa-sys bowed.

"She's always confused me." Kirito shook his head. "She's definitely strong enough to get high spots in tournaments. So why doesn't she participate?"

"Not everyone wants to show off their strength Kirito." Asuna shrugged. "Though I agree Zeliska should at least try and get a Resurrection Kit. They've helped so many times while out in the field."

"Is that why she's called the Uncrowned Queen?" I turned my attention back to them.

Asuna nodded. "Yep! Zeliska has never taken part in tournaments, despite being so well known for her strength. You've been attracting some really great players [YN]."

Kirito stretched. "Well, I need to head to our room. It's getting late, and I still need to go help Rain and Seven." I noticed Asuna pout a little.

"Thanks for the help." I bowed my head slightly towards the two. "Tell Leafa and Sinon as well please."

"We will. Thank you as well. It was great to have the extra help." Kirito waved. He walked away with Asuna. "If he keeps getting stronger players in his party, I'm worried what's going to happen when we meet them in the field." Despite his mutters, I heard what he said.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure I'm strong enough to take you on next time. It won't be the others you have to worry about." I called after them. I caught Kirito's cocky grin as he walked out of the door.

Arfa-sys put something in front of my face. "Master, I think I know what Zeliska was after." She was holding a bar of chocolate. "It's an Arfa-sys upgrade core. It allows me to support you even further both on and outside the field of battle."

"Ah. She must've been getting it for Daisy." Even so, why did she want me, a new player who only had luck on his side, to accompany her. "Let's head back home and you can…eat it, I guess."

"Master, what else would I do with chocolate?"

"I don't know, you're an AI. You tell me."

Arfa-sys chowed down on the chocolate, sitting on my bed while I looked through the spoils of today's hunt. The materials went straight into my item box. The Angry Berserker had dropped some Rubies, which I sold for a decent amount of credits. The final thing was something I didn't expect. A sword. I equipped it and materialised it.

It had the same purple glow as Kirito's sword. Having spent some time in Alfheim Online, I knew the basics of sword combat. This weapon was light however…almost too light. "How does he do it?" I remembered back to the boss fight and seeing Kirito in action. It dawned on me that that guy was the one who was trying to kill me and Kureha. A wave of regret washed over me, but I shook it off. "Back to the SMG." I put the sword into the item box, deciding to keep it as a memento.

Arfa-sys jumped up. "My vault capabilities have expanded! I can now store a percentage of the credits you earn Master, and use that to buy awesome items while you're offline!"

"That's good. Maybe I won't lose half the stuff I get if someone kills me." I went over to my bed when a notification popped up.

 _Hello again [YN]. I hope your Arfa-sys is doing better._

 _I want to thank you again for helping me. Due to my busy schedule, I rarely get to find party members that I can count on. For a new player, you seemed to have a natural talent for gunplay._

 _I'll send a friend request over in a little while. I would appreciate it if you'd continue to help me if you are available. In return, I will watch your back. Having the 'Uncrowned Queen' on your side can only help out in the long run, no?_

 _P.S. That isn't the last upgrade core. You'll find more in the other areas of the game. Better hurry with that levelling._

As soon as I was done reading, another notification popped up, which was the friend request from Zeliska. I accepted and my friends list grew to two. I smiled as I looked at Arfa-sys. "See, I can make friends on my own."

"Um…well…I'll find you a friend soon Master!" Arfa-sys pouted.

I opened my menu and nodded. "I'll see you again tomorrow Arfa-sys." She saluted me before the world was replaced by my dark visor again.

I lifted the Amusphere off and sat up. It was dark outside, a draft coming through my bedroom door. I walked over and closed it. The only light in my room was from my monitor. I would've gone straight past it, if something caught my eye. A player had posted on an online chat that I was part of. I sat down at my computer.

 _Today, I was walking through the field when a monster near me suddenly died. By the time I located where the shot had come from, there was nothing there. I was recording at the time and this is the only thing I could find._

Accompanying the message was an image. I opened it to find what looked like a player in one of the city buildings, but they seemed to be disappearing. The thing that drew my eyes was the blood red eyes staring from the darkness of the building.

Those red eyes weren't just creepy. They were terrifying. I couldn't put my finger on it exactly, but something about them made me want to avoid this player at all costs.

* * *

 **A bad habit of mine is writing future events before they happen, and then I end up only writing the good parts before writing the talking sections. So far, I've managed to avoid that. It's been really hard because I want to write about Kirito Mode, the ending, some parts which I don't want to spoil etc.**

 **But before I go off on a tangent, I want to thank you for 1,000 views. I began writing this as a side project. It has become a priority of mine now to write a chapter at least every two weeks thanks to that number. It's so great to know that so many people are willing to check out my story. So if you're someone returning to check out a new chapter, or just someone who clicked on the first to check it out, thank you so much. Also a huge thank you to anyone who follows/favourites. It always brings a smile when I see that email in my inbox.**

 **Alright then, enough sappy stuff. I won't go on for too much longer. I need to take a break from writing. Chapter 8 will be done within two weeks, but I have a lot of other things to take care of first. Maybe this time I won't write it within a few days...although I did say that with this chapter...**

 **Until next time, Stay Cool**


	8. 8: A long road ahead

**Screw it. I'm not going to say that I'm going to take breaks. I get bored too easily. Chapter 8 everyone! Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 8

The long road ahead

 _A flash of lightning…a dark shadow hovering above me…rain pouring down…_

 _A familiar voice calls out but I don't listen. Pain grew in my heart._

" _Tell me. Why did you come here?"_

GGO welcomed me back the next afternoon. Arfa-sys wasn't in my room like I expected. She's probably outside, finding me a friend. As I was alone for a bit, I took my time getting ready to head out. Looking at the available skills, I unlocked one called Blazing Blast 1. It was the same one that Leafa used yesterday to set the ground on fire. I equipped it on my AR.

I passed my item box and stopped. I looked inside and saw the sword there. Despite yesterday, I couldn't help but feel drawn to it. There had to be some reason why the sword looked so comfortable in his hand. I took it out and shrugged. "What could I lose?"

It didn't take long to get a message telling me to hurry up from Kureha. I smiled to myself and purchased a bunch of bullets before heading down.

Glocken was rather quiet again. There were two groups. Among one, I sighted the pink hair of my partner. I began making my way towards her when I suddenly heard my name being called. I turned to see Bazalt Joe.

"Hey, how's business been treating you?" Bazalt Joe waved at me. "Have those punks come and bothered you again?"

I shook my head. "Thanks again for that."

He gulped. I couldn't help but notice he was extremely nervous compared to yesterday. "So, is this a good time to talk? I, um…sorry, I shouldn't have bugged you. It's just that…" His composure completely broke down. "I want you to hand your Arfa-sys to me!"

I did a double take. "Sorry?"

"Your Arfa-sys is one of the best there is. There's no competition. Her clumsiness and easy going…ness is adorable. It really adds to her charm. I need an Arfa-sys like that to be my partner…but I haven't found one like that…" He looked rather serious, despite his stumbling over words. "I would give everything I have. Hell, I'll give even more! I know that friendship takes heart, and I'm mostly brawn, but I think we've got what it takes to really hit it off." He clasped his hands together and bowed. "So…please would you give me your Arfa-sys!? I'm begging you!"

I knew I would feel guilty for breaking his heart, especially after he went ahead and helped me out, but I couldn't let Arfa-sys go. "Sorry, but she's a friend. Not just my partner. I'm sure you two could become good friends, but I can't just let you take her."

Bazalt Joe looked crestfallen, but nodded. "Yeah, I guess you're right. You really care about your friends, don't you?" He perked up slightly. "Well, I'm sticking to it. I won't give up though. One of these days, I'll get your Arfa-sys. I can't have any other. You best watch your back out there. I'll strike when you least expect!" With that warning…or threat…he walked off.

"I swear he was a nice guy…" I shook my head. "Great. Kirito and Bazalt Joe. Anyone else want a shot at me while we're at it?"

"Sure, why not?" I jumped as I saw Kureha standing to my left. She laughed. "Hey. How did yesterday go?"

"Well, we beat the first dungeon boss." I shrugged.

"Correction, you died Master. Me and Zeliska finished off the boss." Arfa-sys made me jump again, suddenly appearing behind me.

Kureha looked stunned. "Wait, you beat the first boss!? And with _her_!?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. She asked for help and we helped."

"Ugh, you're still the stubbornly nice person still. It really pissed me off sometimes." Kureha sighed before looking at her menu. "Never mind, what level are you?"

"18 last time I checked." We began to walk towards the Teleport Gate.

"So the three of you beat the boss?" Kureha raised an eyebrow.

"No. Kirito, Asuna and two of their friends helped out."

I swear I could see a vein pop in Kureha's head. "Jeez, I leave you for one day…"

We travelled to the Remnant Wasteland. Kureha immediately dropped to her knees and checked the map. There was very few players out today. "Zeliska suggested we start trying to get to the other areas. Apparently I can upgrade [ArN] by defeating bosses."

"Yeah. The issue is your level. You need to be at least Level 30 to take on the boss and survive." Kureha frowned. "You're close, and that accessory will help, but I can't take on that boss without someone who can support without dying."

"Aha! I was waiting for you to come out into the open!"

Bazalt Joe and two other players had followed us out into the field. I had to blink several times to check it was actually him, and not some joke. "Well, I was not expecting that."

"Now, are you going to hand over your Arfa-sys or am I going to take it?" Bazalt Joe only had a pistol on him from what I could see. Still, our level difference made that pistol seem a lot worse than it probably should.

"Look, [ArN] is staying with us." Kureha sighed.

"Kureha, please don't use that name. Only Master can call me by that." Arfa-sys pouted.

"Then what do I call you?"

"Rei."

I shook my head in disbelief. "Look, Joe, you're a nice guy, but [ArN] isn't going anywhere. Even if I wanted to get rid of her, she's a huge help and is registered to me."

"I don't give a damn who she's registered to! The fact is, I want it and it's going to be mine come hell or high water!" Bazalt Joe looked furious now. His hands were itching for a gun. "And in this world, if you're strong enough, you can take whatever you want!"

"Ugh, I don't know where to start with that mentality. Seriously." Even Arfa-sys was getting annoyed by this now.

"I challenge you to combat right here! If I win, I get your Arfa-sys. And on the off chance you manage to scrape a victory, I'll give you something nice for your trouble." Bazalt Joe and his companions produced pistols. The others had standard semi-automatic pistols, but he had a rather scary looking one that was thick and looked powerful.

Kureha glanced at me. "Do you think we can win?"

I didn't see a way out of this. "In this world, strength means you can take whatever you want. But I'm going to use it to defend what I have."

"Move!" Kureha dashed backwards towards the rocks. I ducked down and used Omnia Vanitas to move towards the rocks to get to cover. I saw Bazalt Joe grin as his pistol flashed and was replaced with an LMG…or rather, two. He lifted the two up and began firing. Bullets began flying in every direction as Bazalt Joe became a turret. A few bullets flew in my direction, but I couldn't dodge them all. Three of them managed to scrape by me. I prepared for the death screen but it never came. In fact, my HP sat at over half.

"Finally!" I couldn't stop a silly grin from appearing on my face. An actually PvP fight that I could survive a few shots from a fully automatic weapon. Before, I could barely survive a mine.

I hear a small buzz in my ear. "We should focus on his companions. Those LMGs will take some time to reload, but they've got a lot of ammo. And considering he's got two, it'll be more dangerous to take him head on."

"Right." I peeked from behind cover, only to have to duck back to thanks to a barrage of gunfire hitting the rock. I looked down towards the city, seeing if we could retreat to there. There was way too much open ground, and the rocks were placed further apart the closer we got to the city. I sighed, seeing the gunfire reflected in the windows and-

"Look at the windows." I could make out one of the players sneaking towards Kureha. She obviously had too, quickly moving around the rock and shooting at him. The player retreated while Bazalt Joe covered for him.

He stopped shooting for a second and placed something on the ground. I frowned, assuming he was placing a mine. An explosion come from my right, throwing me from my cover. My HP was dangerously low. The other player ran out of cover to take the opportunity to kill me. I rolled onto my back and aimed, not expecting to live but willing to take someone with me.

My HP suddenly jumped up and I fired at the player's head. It didn't take long for the player to fall over, bursting apart in a red explosion. I rolled sideways towards the rock again, as Bazalt Joe began firing again.

One down.

"He's got the high ground, so he can throw as many grenades as he wants but we would just be rolling them back down towards us." Kureha sighed.

"So that's what that explosion was." I rolled my eyes. We certainly were in a bad situation. The other player had retreated up to Bazalt Joe. There was no way to kill him without suffering a barrage of gunfire from both of them.

"The range would still be rather bad. If he's serious about getting Arfa-sys, we should use that." I could hear Kureha muttering to herself. "[YN], how long until your dodge is ready?"

"About 10 seconds."

"Once you have it ready, we're running to the city. Don't stop. Then dodge into one of the alleyways. Don't use it before. If you need to move, use the UFG." I gulped, looking at the distance. It was at least 200 metres away. "Arfa-sys is on standby to heal."

"I won't let you die Master. After all, you're doing this for me."

I looked around for Arfa-sys, but couldn't see her. "[ArN], where are you?"

"On one of the mountains."

"How are you going to shoot me with a minigun?"

"I have a sniper now. Kureha bought it for me."

I smiled. "Nice job." My Omnia Vanitas was ready. "Let's go!"

I sprinted for the city, hearing gunfire behind me. A few bullets hit me, sending my HP lower than half. It was immediately topped up by Arfa-sys, but I was more than halfway from the city. It didn't take long for the HP bar to decrease once more. I shot my UFG in front of me, but even then, the bullets kept coming.

Think! I need to get there.

For some reason, I thought about yesterday. Seeing Kirito using that sword. The way he fought…the speed and ferocity of it. That first move. What was it?

I opened my menu as I ran and replaced my AR with the sword. The purple glow lit up the ground around me. I stopped, bringing the sword up horizontally. I could hear Kureha asking what I was doing, but I shut her out for a second, thinking about how Kirito did the move. Blade parallel to the ground, slightly behind. I aimed with my other hand and stabbed the air in front of me.

I flew forwards, easily going about 100 metres. All bullets ceased to hit me as I suddenly arrived at the edge of the city. I used Omnia Vanitas to get into cover and heal using the First Aid Kit.

Kureha joined me, panting heavily. "What the hell was that!?"

"I don't know." I reequipped my AR. My HP went back into the yellow.

"We'll discuss it later. For now, Bazalt Joe is heading this way. We've got the advantage." She smiled. "I think we might pull this off."

"Don't jinx it." I looked up and grinned, thinking of an idea. "Want a lift?"

"What?" Kureha looked at the UFG in my hand. "Oh. We could try it…" She blushed as I wrapped my arm around her stomach and shot up. Kureha yelped as we suddenly took off the ground. The UFG didn't quite reach the top, so I kicked off the wall and grasped the railing that surrounded the roof. We arrived on the roof and she kneeled over. "How do you not throw up?"

"You get used to it. Remember, I played Alfheim for a bit." I went to the edge, crouched. Bazalt Joe and his partner were heading towards us. They were looking around rather carefully. "Why couldn't they see us go into that alleyway?"

"If you use that dodge far enough away, the effect can't be seen. It just looks like you disappear." Kureha joined me, lying on her front. "We could stand here and throw grenades."

"If [ArN] can snipe the other player, we could jump down and take Joe." I shrugged.

"I'll stay up here." Kureha's looked rather nervous. Her face was white. My eyes went wide as I remembered she didn't like heights. "I'll fire a few rockets."

I nodded. "[ArN], can you take out the other player?"

"I'll do my best Master."

The crack of a sniper soon followed and the other player slumped over. "Nice shot!" I jumped off. Several rockets went ahead of me and hit Bazalt Joe. He looked up to see me right in front of his face. He tried to aim up but it was already too late. I pushed him down with my feet, sending him crashing to the ground. I aimed point blank at his face. "Checkmate."

It took an entire clip from my gun, but it was worth far more than the price I paid for it.

Bazalt Joe disappeared in an explosion of red. The last thing I saw was a look of absolute disbelief on his face. I suppose if I was as strong as him, I'd think it would be impossible to lose to someone like me as well.

As I said before; you try to take my friends from me, I can't forgive you…

"So, I'm going to teleport back to town." Kureha muttered from her perch.

I looked up and put my arms out in front of me. "Jump. I'll catch you."

"Are you nuts!? I can't jump that far down!" The building wasn't too high. After all, my UFG could only go about 20 metres, and the top was within jumping distance from that. "I'll wait for you in town." She disappeared.

I chuckled to myself. "You okay [ArN]?"

"Yes Master. Should we head back into town?"

"Yeah. Great shot by the way."

"Thank you so much Master." She sounded delighted.

I selected the SBC Glocken. The drab fields were replaced by steel walkways. I saw Kureha leaning against a railing and walked over to her. "You know, this whole place is over a big drop."

"Shut up!" Kureha's eyes snapped shut and pushed me away.

"Master, don't tease Kureha." Arfa-sys wrapped her arms around Kureha's head, shielding her from my teases. I chuckled before turning to see where Bazalt Joe was. He had promised us a reward for killing him after all.

"My, how can three people make so much noise?"

The bored yet smooth voice made my ears twitch. I turned to see him and smiled in greeting. "Hey Itsuki."

* * *

 **A bit of a weird place to cut off, but those of you who have played the game know Itsuki. I want to dedicate a bunch of time to him. He joined the group earlier than Zelsika, but was still not given enough time in my opinion. I still think his core motivation could work for this story though. Not much needs to be changed there.**

 **I'm trying to keep the mood light for these early chapters. Can you believe that we've not even left the first area yet? I mean, it's kind of hard to balance out the story when so much happens in the early game. In Fatal Bullet itself, you beat Solitary Sands and the Old South nearly back to back. That's just so much gameplay and barely any story. It's why I said in one of the earlier Author's Notes that gameplay and story needed to be balanced more. The first hour of Fatal Bullet is like 40 minutes story.**

 **But before I start ranting, Bazalt Joe. I found him hard to write for. He pretty much does a 180, going from nice to "Give me your stuff" pretty much within one conversation. It's understandable...if you do his friendship events. Speaking of those, the first lot will be written soon. After the first area, I'll write them out. They'll probably take the longest to write...probably. You've seen my upload schedule.**

 **I'm typing for too long. I hope you liked this chapter. I was inspired very heavily by this week's episode of Alicization for one of the moments. I hope you can see which.**

 **Until next time, Stay Cool.**


	9. 9: Welcome to the Crew

**Well, I did it. I managed to not write a chapter in a few days.**

 **This one will be a lot longer than the others. I want to do a "mega chapter" at certain points. Like this part, which is the...well, find out for yourself XD**

 **See you at the bottom. Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 9

Welcome to the crew

I hadn't seen him for a couple of days, but he looked rather different. His boredom had gone, despite it still lingering in his voice. I hadn't noticed before, but I saw he was a lot more relaxed than when we had first met.

"It's been a while." He nodded at us three. "I've heard rumours that a new player had been taking on some big shots. Never imagined it would be you." He chuckled and looked towards Kureha and Arfa-sys. "Hello again Kureha. And I haven't seen you before."

"I'm my Master's Arfa-sys! You can call me Rei!" Arfa-sys posed proudly.

Itsuki looked at me, a pained expression passing over his face. "Please don't tell me that was the secret reward during the tournament." I nodded. "You really do have the devil's own luck."

I looked over towards the building where everyone's homes were and saw a group of girls peaking around the corner. They were all staring at Itsuki. It was from behind those girls I saw another familiar face. Zeliska and Daisy both made their way over to us. "Well, isn't this a gathering of unusual people?"

Itsuki's eyes narrowed while Kureha's widened. "Zeliska? The Uncrowned Queen?" Kureha went into fangirl mode. "I'm Kureha." She bowed towards Zeliska.

"Yes, I've heard about you." Zeliska smiled at her. "Poor Tarako hasn't been sighted since you, [YN] and Rei took out his group."

Kureha blushed and waved it off. "It's not like it was amazing or something."

Itsuki sighed, turning his attention back to me. "Anyway, I came to see you [YN]. I was wondering if you would be willing to help me out. My guild has all logged off for the night and I was planning on hitting the Cave dungeon."

I looked over at Kureha and Arfa-sys, worried that they would be tired after the fight with Bazalt Joe. To my surprise, Arfa-sys was her usual perky self and Kureha was reinvigorated with new energy.

"If you wouldn't mind, I'll like to tag along." Zeliska leaned on the barrier next to Kureha. "I was just coming to see if you would like to tackle the Cave at some point, but there's no time like the present."

"The more the merrier." I noticed Itsuki was hiding some opposition to Zeliska joining but he shrugged it off. Even so… "Are you alright with that Itsuki?"

"As long as she doesn't steal my stuff again." He muttered under his breath, just loud enough for us all to hear. Kureha, Arfa-sys and I exchanged a worried look, but Zeliska wore the same smile she always had. She remained silent.

"Um…shall we get going then?" Kureha suggested.

"Yep! We'll need to get going soon if we want to get to the Cave before sunset!" Arfa-sys pointed towards the Teleport Gate. "We should be able to level you up by the time we get there Master with all these pros!"

"Pros eh?" Kureha wore a sad smile. Zeliska patted Daisy on the cheek before heading down the walkway. I started walking and Itsuki stayed beside me.

"So, how are you enjoying GGO?" Itsuki yawned.

I chuckled, thinking back to the squad fights that I've had. "I'm having a blast. Kureha has really helped me out."

Itsuki frowned, scratching his head. "I find myself more and more confused and intrigued by you. A few days ago, you were a new player. Now you're taking down entire squads that have been playing for several weeks. And you have a rare item."

"It wasn't just me. Kureha and [ArN] have helped a lot." I pointed out.

A sigh escaped him. "Of course."

We reached the Teleport Gate and the blue flash sent me to the brown dead land. I crouched down and Kureha retrieved her map. "We can the most direct route." She pointed at the light blue line that was on the opposite side of the map. There were a few players on the map, but they weren't anywhere near the Cave.

Itsuki narrowed his eyes. "We should be careful around the city nonetheless. There are several spots where you can stay where you can't attract aggro so you don't have to defend yourself." He pointed to two spots. I recognised one as the place where me and Kureha ambushed Bazalt Joe. The other was on top of a building over an intersection.

Kureha plotted a route using yellow waypoints before leading us. Arfa-sys already had her Healing Bullet ready, her gun glowing green. Zeliska had her AR ready but kept a casual stride. Itsuki had his sniper rifle on his shoulder, not bothering to prepare for combat. _What a weird bunch of players we must look like._ I rolled my eyes, my SMG resting at my side.

We reached the city. There were a few enemies in the street. I raised my gun to shoot but Itsuki put his hand out in front of everyone. "There's not enough enemies here."

"Another squad?" I lowered my gun and glanced up at the intersection.

Kureha looked down the street and nodded. "Several Electromag Stun Traps are on the floor. Obviously they want to paralyse us to get an easy kill."

"I nominate you to be the bait." Itsuki chuckled, addressing Kureha. He received a glare in response. "I was joking."

"I'll go and get a better look." I got out my UFG.

"I'll come with you." Zeliska volunteered. I nodded, preparing to place my arm around her waist until she produced her own UFG. It made sense, seeming as she had Daisy, another Type X. I fired my UFG to get on top of the building next to the spot that Itsuki had pointed out on the map earlier. The building we climbed was taller, so I had cover while climbing and could investigate while not being spotted. Indeed, there was three players waiting at the back of the building. "One has a Dragonfall, so he was going to pick off the person who got caught. Another has a Sylph Type A and the final one has a Procyon SL. They'll most likely be the Buffer. All weapons may be enhanced." I raised an eyebrow, impressed. Zeliska smiled. "It comes with experience sweetie."

"Any ideas?" I whispered, trying not to attract attention.

Kureha's voice came through the radio. "It looks like if you two can take out the assault rifle, we can take out the traps and rush the last two. There's a fire escape at the side we can climb up. We're likely to draw the aggro of any enemies, but we should be able to deal with them easily."

I crouched down, equipping my AR, resting the barrel on a fence that surrounded the building and pointing it at the player with the Sylph. Zeliska joined me and began breathing slower. I followed her example, our breathing coming into sync. "Ready." I murmured, trying not to interrupt my breathing.

"NOW!"

Gunfire came from below and my vision was blinded by muzzle flash. The players on the roof suddenly panicked, only for the Assault player to be killed and explode in a flash of red. Footsteps came from below us, but the players obviously hadn't heard them, turning to fire at us. Me and Zeliska lay down, out of sight of the players. It took about ten seconds before a second set of guns opened fire. Then another five seconds before silence.

We joined the others on the roof, Kureha looking amazed. "Wow! I knew you were good with guns Itsuki, but that was incredible! You switched guns so quickly."

"It comes with experience." Itsuki shrugged, smirking at Zeliska. She suddenly pointed her shotgun at Itsuki's head, something he obviously wasn't expecting.

"Behind you."

He ducked and Zeliska shot point blank into a scorpion which had climbed up the side of the building. All the enemies in the area had indeed been drawn to our gunfight. "We should head towards the Cave now." Kureha shot down a Facsimile, one of the humanoid robots. "It's starting to get dark."

The once orange sky was starting to turn to red, signalling the end of the day. After clearing out the enemies, we headed down the fire escape and continued our journey.

"I hope we don't have to deal with Player Killers every time we want to go anywhere." I stretched my arms up to the sky.

Itsuki shook his head. "Once you get to the further areas, you'll find less players who are in smaller groups. I tend to stay in this area because there's a lot more players to pick off."

Kureha gasped. "Were you the player that took out Tarako while he was battling us?"

"No, why?"

"Someone took out a sniper and another player while we fought." Kureha explained. "There was no gunshot though, which is strange."

Itsuki nodded. "That player might've been using a silenced weapon. Most likely an AMR Assassin due to the range. There's not many players who could be fast enough to make the distance between a good sniper perch and the field while maintaining accuracy."

"Well, he must've bought it from the store, as no enemy in this game has been known to drop it." Zeliska shrugged.

Arfa-sys was making notes in the back of the group. "Master, I suggest we attempt to find one of these AMRs. They are slow at firing, but hit really hard."

"Sure." I nodded.

"You'll find a sniper in the other dungeon in this area anyway, so you can practise there if you want." Itsuki said as we went past a rock formation and the Cave entrance came into sight.

"If you guys are so good, how come you need to go in here?" Kureha asked as a bunch of tiny scorpions began approaching.

Zeliska sighed as Itsuki placed down a Proximity Mine. "Unfortunately I don't get to make much progress because I struggle to find a squadron that can help me with my schedule. My work takes up a lot of my time."

"And I need a gun." Itsuki shrugged, the ground exploding as the scorpions ran over the mine and most of them exploded. "The boss won't drop it with good perks." Arfa-sys finished up the stragglers.

The Cave was closed by a large door. Arfa-sys approached it and nodded. "We need a password. Lucky for you, I already know it Master." She began typing away at the keys for a few seconds. The doors soon began to slide open ominously, leading to another door. We all headed in and the entrance slowly closed behind us. As soon as the entrance was shut, the second door opened, leading to the dungeon.

The place was certainly a little more interesting than the other dungeons. Several pipes were running down the walls, an oily smell coming from them. They all seemed to be funnelling towards another area, based on the map that had been provided once we had entered the dungeon.

"Expect a lot of drones and Facsimiles." Itsuki took out his SMG.

Kureha took out the map. The dungeon was about double the size of the dungeon me, Arfa-sys and Zeliska had tackled, even including the other half we didn't have to go through. It was a collection of corridors that twisted and bent to form a strange looking M shape. At the end was the symbol for a Teleport Gate, most likely leading to the boss room.

As we walked through the door, we found ourselves on a platform over a room. Drones patrolled the skies while Facsimiles strolled around the floor.

"Shall we?" I looked at Kureha who nodded.

"Itsuki and Zeliska, jump down and engage the Facsimiles. We'll take out the drones. Rei, heal and support." Kureha took out her rocket launcher and aimed for the nearest drone. I took out my AR and aimed for the furthest one.

The air became alive with guns and the smell of charred powder.

A few minutes later

We reached the middle of the dungeon, more specifically to a room with a ground floor, a slightly raised platform and a walkway connecting two pillars and the exit door. Itsuki rushed towards two Light Facsimiles who were keeping the door shut, sliding and firing straight his sniper point blank in the face of the first one before spinning around, switching weapons and gunning down the final enemy. The door turned from red to green, allowing us to progress.

"Maybe we should take a small break." I suggested, a little worried. The way Itsuki was gunning down the enemies was a lot more ferocious compared to the bored persona he had most of the time. I was beginning to wonder if that was an act.

"It'll give us chance to sort out any gear too." Kureha nodded.

"Master, be sure to pass on anything you want to keep to me!" Arfa-sys held out her hands.

I frowned. "Wouldn't that put a strain on you?"

"I'm here to support you in anyway possible Master, so don't worry about me." Arfa-sys proudly posed, a bright smile on her face.

"Even so…" I looked at my inventory list and found quite a few items that I liked the look of. It wouldn't be long until I was carrying too much and be more than just the weakest one here. I'd be a fish in a barrel. I selected everything that wasn't an AR, SMG, minigun and sniper rifle, and discarded the rest. It left me with a few weapons, accessories and the sword. "Here." I passed on the sniper and two miniguns I had gotten to drop.

"Master…thank you!" Arfa-sys jumped at me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

Zeliska giggled behind her hand. "It's nice to see you treat Arfa-sys so well [YN]."

Itsuki nodded. "Most would think of her as a tool with a mouth, but she seems to be a lot more than that."

"Rubbish…rubbish…Bazalt Joe seems to think so." Kureha sighed, swiping through her inventory. "Rubbish…rubbish…we never did get to find him in Glocken."

It didn't take long for us to continue onwards. As soon as we opened an ammo box that was lying there, the door opened to find three snipers on a column in the back, all pointing snipers at Kureha who happened to be in front. "Look out!" I grabbed her arm, pulling her to the side. The sudden pull made her lose balance and I suddenly felt myself hit the ground with a weight on top of me.

I was a little scared to open my eyes, but when I inevitably did, the scene was exactly what I expected.

"Wh-wh-WHAT THE HELL!?" Kureha jumped away from me. I scrambled to my feet, firing at the approaching enemies, trying to ignore the redness in both mine and her cheeks.

"Master…have you and Kureha got a fever?" Arfa-sys frowned as she took cover behind the door. Zeliska was looking between us with this smug look on her face that I never wanted to see again. Itsuki was already in the room, charging through an enemy with Sliding Shot.

After dealing with the immediate threat and the snipers, I turned to Kureha and bowed. "S-sorry. I was just trying to stop you from getting killed."

"There was no need to pull me that hard! I could've easily survived that attack! Besides, if one of us dies, then it doesn't matter! First off, because we can just teleport back immediately and join back up at the boss room, and second, Itsuki has a Resurrection Kit!" The red of embarrassment seemed to have turned to red of anger.

Zeliska suddenly laughed, interrupting us. We all looked at her. "Sorry, it's just that I'm so used to everyone taking this game so seriously. It's nice to be reminded that you two are friends."

Kureha calmed down. "Yeah…I guess." She said meekly.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"Friends huh?" I heard Itsuki mutter under his breath.

Another few minutes later

The teleporter stood in front of us, the last obstacle between us and the boss room. Kureha got out the map and pointed to a room above our own. "This should be the boss room. By the looks of it, it's a rather large space. What's the boss like?"

"Like the Arachnid robots, expect this one has a turret on the top." Itsuki explained. Obviously he was missing out on a few details.

Luckily, Zeliska jumped in. "The boss has two weak spots. There's the one on its face which does more damage and can stun it. The second is on the back of the turret, which can disable the cannon. It will still be able to attack using a gun on the bottom, but we should be able to avoid it if we time our dodge right, or flat out tank the attack."

"For someone who hasn't beaten the boss, you sure know a lot." Itsuki pointed out.

Zeliska just smiled like she normally did. "The Zaskar designers had an interview on this boss during last week's MMO Stream."

Itsuki spat. "All they do is invite egotistical players on there. Like that XeXeeD."

I yawned, remembering the episode in question. "Anything else?"

"We should use the space. Spread out. The people on the opposite side of the aggroed person should be able to hit the turret."

Arfa-sys jumped up. "Let's do this!"

We all stepped onto the Teleport Gate. A notification popped up, informing us that this was indeed the boss room. The area around us was replaced by a room exactly the shape of the one we saw on the map. The area seemed more like a quarry. The pipes that we had been following all throughout the dungeon now had their purpose revealed. They were pumping water. The entire dungeon had been underwater and I hadn't even realised. The walls were made of stone and a mesh fence, rocks on one side and the sea on the other, where the pipes were emptying into.

A storage unit was inserted into the ceiling. It slowly began to open. Once it had fully opened, a large mech dropped from it. It was about double my size, with four legs that held up a core, made from a shiny white metal. On top of the core was a long turret, nearly as long as the height of the mech itself. Two glowing spots were visible. On the front of the core itself that glowed bright red and on the back of the turret which was a lot duller. Three HP bars appeared next to the core.

The name was the Shooting Range.

"Everyone move!" Kureha yelled as she ran for the other side. Immediately the Shooting Range focused on her, spinning the turret away from the four of us. Arfa-sys stayed put while Zeliska ran left, Itsuki ran right and I opened fire on the weak spot on the turret. The turret began charging, but thanks to help from Arfa-sys, I managed to disable it in time. The Shooting Range staggered slightly, but soon found balance again.

"Zeliska, grenades!" Kureha yelled from the back. Two round objects flew through the air towards the Shooting Range, one sticking to the side of it and the other rolling underneath. The two blasts caused the Shooting Range to fall down, the legs going outwards causing the core to sink lower to the ground. Kureha and Zeliska charged in, firing point blank into the weak point and draining the first health bar.

The boss climbed back onto its legs, suddenly bending lower. The legs spun around, sending a shockwave of air around it. Kureha and Zeliska were sent flying back, their health draining to half. It was at this point that the boss decided to turn its attention to Itsuki, who was firing his sniper as fast as possible at the core. As it approached, it began to fire the minigun that was on the bottom of the core, but somehow, Itsuki's HP remained hovering over zero. He flashed a smile, firing one last bullet while switching guns, immediately transitioning into a Sliding Shot. He slid underneath the legs, which had just stepped onto two separate traps. The Proximity Mine and Electromag Stun Trap both went off, causing massive damage and paralysing the boss. Itsuki finished his assault but firing a Blazing Blast over his shoulder, setting the Shooting Range alight.

"If anyone else wants to join in, feel free to." There was something different about Itsuki now. His smile was no longer behind a veil of boredom. His eyes were alight. I never realised it, but he now looked like everyone else while they're playing the game.

The Shooting Range got back up, turret at the ready. I used Power Form and my First Aid Kit, charging into battle. Arfa-sys also shot a HP Recovery Shot at me, which wasn't really necessary but I gave her a thumbs up nonetheless. I fired at the turret to grab aggro before retreating. The turret began charging up, a ball of energy appearing at the tip of the turret. The Bullet Line confirmed that it was aiming for me. It fired, and I dived to the side, materialising my UFG and firing it behind the boss, using it to immediately get back on my feet. The Shooting Range's health was sitting in the red, half a bar left.

A purple bubble appeared on top of the core, poisoning the boss. It was then that the minigun on the bottom began to spin. A Bullet Line came from it, and began to move as the minigun rotated. The gunfire would hit everyone.

Two rockets hit the boss, draining the last of its health. I looked over at Kureha who had her rocket launcher resting on her shoulder. I let out a sigh of relief.

But the Shooting Range didn't explode. The turret on top began to spin rapidly, like screw was coming loose. The energy ball began form at the tip. "Dive!" Kureha yelled. We all dived forwards in time to get underneath the laser as it begun tearing apart the room. After about five full laps of the room, the laser stopped and the Shooting Range exploded.

I let out a sigh of relief as a door in the mesh fencing slowly opened. I pushed myself into a sitting position and smiled. "Another happy landing."

A rewards screen popped up in front of me, and my level jumped up to 25. I let out a yawn before looking through them. There was an epic tier minigun that I could give to Arfa-sys, three High Quality Sapphires and 50,000 credits. The boss itself had dropped 100,000 EXP, a nice amount for the first area boss.

"Master, we did it!" Arfa-sys knocked me over as she dived into my side, wrapping her arms around my waist.

After recovering from the winding she gave me, I patted Arfa-sys on the head and smiled. "Yeah. Good job [ArN]."

Everyone else except Itsuki looked completely wiped out. "We probably should activate the Teleport Gate and head back to Glocken." Kureha stretched. "I need to go to bed."

"That's the best idea I've heard all day." Zeliska pushed herself onto her feet.

A hand appeared in front of my face. I took it and Itsuki pulled me up. "Good job [YN]."

"Thanks. You too." I gave him an exhausted smile. All of the day's activities had caught up to me and I was ready to fall asleep.

Red eyes watched as the group entered the desert. They flashed, taking names of the players as he heard them groan about how exhausted they were. He already had the name of the boy with grey hair, but the other boy…

"[YN], you've made the list."

* * *

 **Well, I hope that was worth the wait. I'm glad that a lot of people are enjoying.**

 **Next chapter will be rather short, but will be uploaded in conjunction with the first set of friendship events. So, look forward to that.**

 **Reviews:**

 **waredgo: Glad to hear you're enjoying :) In regards to your question, I do have plans to use that, but it'll be mostly in the friendship events. Kureha's fear of heights isn't going to play a massive role, but the idea I have for Zeliska's is a lot more core to her character.**

 **I honestly don't know how long it'll be until the next chapter is released. I'll do my best to make sure it's out within two weeks. I'm playing Fatal Bullet again so it'll give me motivation to write XD**

 **Thanks to everyone who's reviewed. Until next time, Stay Cool :)**


	10. 10: Dust

**Hello again. The short chapter does have a reason. See below for the explanation.**

* * *

Chapter 10

Dust

The area just outside of the gate looked like the entrance to a cave, which I guess makes sense. The pipes from the dungeon were spilling water out into the ocean. Palm trees made a natural path leading to a mountain pass.

And then there was the sand. The wind was strong, blowing the desert into our faces. I guess that a sandstorm was either beginning or was finishing up, something that would definitely impede our progress at certain points.

"We should head back to town!" Kureha yelled over the wind. We all nodded, opening our menus and selecting the SBC Glocken.

The steel city was lit up by several street lights due to the starry sky above. Looking at the time, I felt a lump in my throat, knowing that I would probably oversleep tomorrow. I let out another yawn, confirming it was time to head off.

"I think someone's going to be dead on their feet soon." Itsuki chuckled. "Thanks though."

"Did you get what you needed?" Arfa-sys asked.

Itsuki shrugged. "I got some good perks. If I combine this with other weapons, it should be a good weapon. Thanks though. I had…fun."

"My, you do have a soft side Itsuki." Zeliska tried to laugh but that was interrupted with a yawn. Itsuki turned away, but I could make out the corner of his mouth was curved upwards.

"If it's alright, I'd like to join you all again." He muttered. I think it was supposed to be to himself, but I made it out.

"Sure you can." I nodded.

Itsuki looked rather surprised and then laughed in disbelief. "I have my own squadron to look after, but if you need help, I'll be a message away." He opened his menu and sent me a friend request. I noticed he didn't send one to the others.

We all said goodnight and one by one, the others logged off. "Master, will you be on tomorrow?" Arfa-sys was still as perky as ever.

"Yeah. When I wake up." I chuckled, not knowing when that would be.

"I told you already Speigel, I don't want to go and do that right now! Have you seen the time?" A familiar voice came from a gate just to the left of the Teleport Gate. I put a hand up to Arfa-sys so she'd stay put before going to investigate. I saw two players, one I recognised who was looking rather irate and the other was wearing a camouflage suit with armour protecting his chest, elbows and knees. He had long silver hair and thin eyes. Right now, he was looking rather disheartened. Sinon let out a groan. "Honestly, you should be sleeping right now too."

"Anything I can help with?" I leaned against a pillar supporting an overhang. The two of them jumped upon me announcing my presence. "She's right you know. You should probably be sleeping. Both of you." I added on the end.

The guy, I think his name was Speigel, scoffed. "Says you. You're still awake."

"I was about to log off when I heard you two." I frowned, narrowing my eyes. I didn't know exactly what was going on, but I was guessing he was trying to pressure Sinon into doing something right this minute. Considering how late it was, it wouldn't be healthy to do something that required heavy concentration, like using a sniper.

Speigel sighed, giving up. "Fine. I see you tomorrow Sinon…" He disappeared.

Sinon exhaled, exhausted. "I had that."

"Well, it can be best for someone else to be there to prevent things from escalating." I felt all the tension from that melt away.

Sinon shrugged. "I wouldn't worry. He very rarely bothers me. Only when Kirito has logged off." She smiled suddenly. "Oh yeah, you're the guy who helped us in the Angry Berserker fight."

"Helped is an interesting way of putting it." I scratched the back of my head, remembering that I died.

"Well, thanks for that." She opened her menu. "Could you do me a favour? Don't tell anyone else about what just happened." I nodded. "Thanks. Bye." Sinon disappeared.

I let out a final yawn, signalling that it was indeed time for bed. I walked back over to Arfa-sys and said goodnight before logging out myself.

" _[YN], please stop!"_

 _The massive figure hovered overhead, charging a weapon that locked onto me._

" _Kill them."_

* * *

 **And that concludes the first part of my Fatal Bullet Rewrite. Our heroes move into Solitary Sands, with new adventures, allies and threats to discover.**

 **I'm also uploading my first set of Friendship Events today. This is going to be the first set of them. I'll detail them in there.**

 **It's about time I start introducing some of the regular SAO characters into the story, don't you? Kirito and Asuna have had some time, as well as Leafa and Sinon to a much lesser extent. As I said previously, a lot of characters are being cut out due to them being unnecessary. For example, why is Philia there? She's kind of just stuck on there for little reason other than fanservice (not the sexy kind of fanservice).**

 **By the way, very soon, I'll be offering up a fresh perspective. Kirito Mode was...lacking in my opinion. I think it might've been nice if we could start to play as him earlier to try and get more information on Death Gun a lot earlier. So, I'm expanding it a bit. These chapters will be labled as [KM Chapter 1].**

 **But anyway, I'll move on to uploading the Friendship Events. Hope you guys and gals enjoyed the first part of Fatal Bullet Rewrite! As always, Stay Cool!**


	11. Friendship Events 1

**Hello for the second time today! This time, we have the first set of friendship events. Hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Friendship Events 1

The Spark

I logged in the next day, finding myself in my room despite logging out outside. Arfa-sys wasn't there, apparently wandering around Glocken. I smiled, noticing Kureha, Zeliska and Itsuki was online.

 _Who should I go and talk to first?_

 **Kureha**

I arrived in Solitary Sands, the desert that we had discovered yesterday after coming out of the Cave. The sandstorm was still in effect, making it nearly impossible to see. According to my map, Kureha was just above the exit of the Cave. I used my UFG to make my way up there in no time.

Kureha jumped as I landed, spinning around and aiming her SMG. "Jeez! You could've messaged me, letting me know you were coming to meet me."

I shrugged, joining her in observing the land. "What are you doing?"

"Getting an idea of the area. With this sandstorm though, I can't see a thing." Kureha put a scope she was using back in one of the pouches on her belt. "I can make out a shape in the centre of this storm but I'm having to use the map to find landmarks."

"Cool." I opened up map and began looking.

Kureha immediately was by my side, pointing at the map. "We should be careful if we go through the mountain pass. It'll be like fish in a barrel if someone decides to hide in the mountains. The closest we can get to the centre is this shipyard. According to someone I know, the lighthouse should hold the key to stopping it, but very few people go in there because the boss is annoying."

I closed my map and nodded. "Well, I was hoping to be able to spend some time just being friends in here."

Kureha's eyes widened, pink beginning to appear on her cheeks. "Oh, right." She giggled. "I guess it is rarely just the two of us, with Rei and now Zeliska and Itsuki." She kicked a bunch of sand up, making it join the storm. "It's kind of strange being around two of the strongest players in the game. They seem to be miles ahead of us."

"You're still miles ahead of me." I laughed. "I don't know if I'll ever catch up to you." Kureha rolled her eyes. Her mouth started moving, but the wind suddenly picked up and I missed what she said. "Sorry, I didn't hear that."

"It doesn't matter." Kureha smiled sadly. "I'm going to keep scouting for a little while. If you need me, I'm only a message away."

I nodded, jumping down back towards the Cave exit. It was then that I saw a glint in the sand. I went over to it and picked it up. It was Gold Ore.

A memory suddenly came back to me.

 _Momiji put out her hand. "Ta-dah!"_

 _The white pearl shone brightly in the sun. She had found it at the beach a few days ago, and had called me to boast. I didn't believe it, mainly because I was jealous that I couldn't go._

" _I'm gonna find some gold next and make a necklace out of it!" She wore a grin bigger than I had ever seen on her._

 _I smirked. "Oh yeah? I bet I find it first." I knew this was impossible task, but I loved to get into little competitions with Momiji._

 _She pouted. "I'll beat you this time!"_

I smiled. It was a memory from 10 years ago. I stored it in my inventory and decided to wait. Surely there had to be a pearl somewhere in this world. It would be a competition 10 years in the making.

 **Zeliska**

I rounded the corner and saw Zeliska in front of a shop that I had never seen before. It had mannequins in the window with various outfits on them. Zeliska seemed not to notice me as I walked towards her. As I got close, Daisy came out of the store, looking rather pleased with herself.

"Master, you already know I was capable of doing this myself. Why did you insist on coming with me?" Daisy asked.

Zeliska just smiled. "Well, there's another sort of danger cuties like you could run into."

"I hope not." I announced myself, making the two jump. "I'd hate for someone to snatch up my Arfa-sys while she's out and about."

"[YN]." Zeliska's face brightened when she saw me.

"Hello." Daisy bowed in greeting.

Zeliska turned to Daisy. "How about you run on ahead to the next store? It will give me chance to talk with [YN]."

"But Master, you just said-"

"It should be fine. Not many players are online."

Daisy sighed. "Very well Master." She walked past us, avoiding looking at me for some reason.

Once she had disappeared, Zeliska hid a laugh behind her hand. "She's very sweet, but a little too helpful sometimes." She let out a yawn. "So what brings you into this part of Glocken [YN]?"

"I saw you were online and thought it might be nice to spend some time with you." I answered honestly. "It's rarely just me and someone else."

Zeliska's eyebrows raised in surprised. "Wow, I never expected you to be so forward." She pouted a little. "There goes my only way of teasing you."

I scratched the back of my head and laughed nervously. "So what are you doing here?" I looked at the shop, seeing it was some kind of outfit store.

"Just something me and Daisy get up to every now and then." Zeliska grabbed my arm and held it against her. "But that's not really important right now. Well, seeming as you want to spend time with me, you can escort me to my next destination."

We began walking through the streets. As Zeliska said, there were few players online, but the ones that were had begun staring at us. I didn't really blame them. Why would the Uncrowned Queen bother with such a new player? In fact… "Why did you ask me to help you? I mean, I died in that boss fight. I was next to useless."

"Oh I don't know about that." Zeliska shook her head, her hair almost hitting me in the face. "Skills and levels are only part of a player's arsenal. I could tell that you were a special player from the moment I saw you. And I might need someone who can help me on a regular basis. You seem to be online every day."

"I made a promise."

"To Kureha?" I nodded. "That poor girl needs to realise that she can't be a mountain by herself. She needs others to support her. So it's really good for her to have you around."

I shrugged. "I think it's just a little daunting to have two players who are so strong around us. Not that I don't like having you around."

Zeliska laughed. "Well, I'm sure you two will catch up soon enough." Daisy came into view outside an accessory shop. Zeliska let go of my arm. "Well, thank you for escorting me [YN]. Be sure to message me if you need me."

"Likewise." I bowed before walking away. I frowned, knowing she was hiding something. The way she was holding my arm was a little too intimate, despite her barely knowing me.

 **Itsuki**

I found Itsuki next to the Governor's Office. He was surrounded by five other players, most of them having female avatars. He seemed to spot me but his eyes darted away straight away. I waited for a minute, before I received a message from him, telling me to meet him on the building overlooking the Glocken. I looked to see which building he meant, and saw it was the one that Tarako's friends had spotted me from. There was a walkway connecting it to the rest of Glocken.

It didn't take long to get there. There wasn't anyone else there, most likely the reason why Itsuki picked it. I sat down on a bench and waited. It didn't take long for him to appear, looking over his shoulder. He let out a sigh and sat down next to me. "I'm surprised you decided to seek me out."

"I'm surprised you wanted to make time for me. You seem to be rather popular." I chuckled.

Itsuki leaned forwards, hands clenched in front of his face. "You know, it's not fun being popular."

"I guess I wouldn't want all that attention." I admitted.

"It's why I spend most of my time in tournaments. You don't need to worry about people wanting to team up with you. I can rely on my guild." He sighed before leaning back again. "Though I guess I could ask you to tag along if you wanted."

"Maybe when I get a bit stronger." I opened my menu and pulled up my status window. "I wouldn't want to weigh you down."

Itsuki smiled. "Levels are only a number." He opened his status window and showed me it. His level was only a few above mine. In fact, if I decided to just grind levels for a day, I could overtake him. "You see? It's about skill. And I can tell that you're already one of the better players in this game. The way you fight is very precise and planned. And that gadget of yours gives you an advantage."

"It's only because of friends like you that I do so well." I waved his praise off, knowing that he was exaggerating. His smile faded once I finished speaking. "Did I say something wrong?"

Itsuki shook his head. "Sorry. I don't have many people to call a friend. Even less who would call me one." He opened his inventory and materialised a gun. A pistol with a black casing, a comfortable grip with a black star symbol on the bottom of the grip. "Here." He pushed it towards me. "It's not anything special. It's my first weapon that dropped from a boss. I've kept it for sentimental reasons."

I picked it up, feeling it in my hand. "I couldn't just take it for free."

"Yes you can." Itsuki's voice sounded commanding for a second. "Trust me. You accepting this gift means a lot more than anything you could give to me in return. So please, take it."

I claimed it, making sure to lock it so I couldn't sell or discard it. He was right. It wasn't anything special in terms of stats or power, just a little better than the ray gun that everyone was supposed to get. But it was special to him. "Thank you. I'll keep it safe."

Itsuki nodded. "Listen, I might be interested in exploring this new area. Would it be okay if I joined you?"

"Of course."

He gave a genuine smile. His eyes brightened up and everything. "Thanks. I'll be in touch." He stood up and began walking back down towards the Governor's Office.

I materialised the gun again and examined it more closely. It was a nice looking gun. Something about the black star seemed familiar though.

 **Arfa-sys**

"Master!"

The familiar voice came from behind me. Her happiness was contagious, making me feel better just from hearing her. I turned to see Arfa-sys running towards me. "I was just about to come find where you had gotten to."

"I need to show you something!" She began dragging me towards home. Instead of going inside, she dragged me up a staircase that was right next to the entrance. Over another bridge was a man standing there, a helmet covering his face. He was obviously an NPC, because he didn't react when he came closer. "This strange man has a whole bunch of materials for credits."

I sighed. "How did you even find this guy?"

"Just wandering around." Arfa-sys scratched the back of her head, not convincing me in the slightest. I raised an eyebrow and she caved in. "Bazalt Joe showed me. He said it was for beating him."

"Well, at least he kept his promise." I looked at the NPC. "It's certainly a good place to put this guy. He's very out of the way."

"There's also a dungeon down there Master!" Arfa-sys pointed across the bridge to an opening. It looked like a staircase lead down to somewhere. "But the enemies are extremely difficult. I recommend getting stronger before tackling it."

"Right." I took a mental note of the location of both things Arfa-sys had shown me. "Nice work." I patted her head. She blushed before giggling to herself. "So what else have you been doing?"

"Oh, I ran into Kirito at the arcade."

I raised an eyebrow, worried. "What were you doing there?"

"I was exploring…and I liked the claw game." She admitted sheepishly.

I rolled my eyes and smiled. "Anything else."

Arfa-sys's eyes lit up. "Oh yes Master! Have you heard about Squad Jam?"

* * *

 **These are the only friendship events which are going to have their placement set in stone. These happen just after the OC and his group clear the Remnant Wastelands. Other friendship events will be uploaded after an area has been clear, but they can happen before or after unless a character appears in them that couldn't appear beforehand.**

 **Due to the way I've set up the Resurrection Kit, I will be doing a side story focused on Squad Jam. This will happen in the main story, but as it's not part of it, I will label it as a side story. This will happen just before the end of Solitary Sands, so look forward to it.**

 **The amount of friendship events will vary per character. Here's my plan:  
** **3 for Kureha  
3 for Zeliska  
2 for Arfa-sys  
2 for Itsuki  
1 for Kirito  
** **I want to not have character events that aren't really needed. Like with Leafa's for example. The OC taking her for a flight makes sense for her character, but doesn't when it doesn't develop anything with either character.**

 **The next batch will be completed once we reach the end of Solitary Sands. I want to add a lot of character moments, as in terms of story, not a lot happens during this part of the game. There's a reason I've added in a sandstorm and Squad Jam.**

 **Chapter 11 will be underway soon. In the meantime, you can always check out my other fanfiction, Alicization Nightshade. It's a crossover between my own series and SAO. I hope you'll like it as much as you all seem to like this one.**

 **In the meantime, thank you all for 2,000 views. It really means a lot to me. Stay Cool**


	12. 11: KIAZ

**Sorry for the delay on this one. I wish I could give a better excuse, but I've just been playing games XD**

* * *

Chapter 11

KIAZ

Whispers began to circulate the next day. Tarako hadn't been seen since the day me, Arfa-sys and Kureha had fought him. Up until this point, it was speculated that he was hiding away due to a hurt ego, but according to someone who knew him, his monthly fee had just been paid and he still hasn't logged in.

The whispers came with a name. Death Gun.

Of course, I was immediately under speculation. But due to the fact I was new, it never went further than just a thought. The name Death Gun reminded me of the picture that was posted to the forums. The blood red eyes staring out of the darkness.

"Hey, are you even listening!?" Something smacked me on the head, stirring me from my thoughts. I looked up to see Kureha standing over me, hands on hips and a potted plant in her hand.

"Did you just hit me with that?" I blinked several times to make sure I wasn't seeing stuff.

Itsuki chuckled. "I'd put that back where it was. Taipan wouldn't be happy if he found out his plant went missing."

"R-right! Sorry." Kureha placed the plant back in the corner.

We were all sat in Alphard's squadron room to avoid the crowds around Itsuki. He owned a rather nice place. The walls were a mix of crimson red, dark grey and white. We were all sat in the main room, which was two long tables on each side of the room and a desk at the back of the room. Kureha had gone back to a chair in the back of the room. Itsuki was leaning against the desk. I was sat at one of the long tables with Arfa-sys. Zeliska wasn't there, sending me a message saying she was busy with work and would join up later.

A map was placed in the middle of the room, showing the entirety of the Solitary Sands area. It looked rather vast with small pockets of activity. The mountain pass led to a shipyard that was buried in the sand. There was a small pit which seemed to be the centre of the sandstorm from what I saw the other day with Kureha. At the very north was what seemed to be an oil refinery and on the east side was a lot of rocky terrain and the Lighthouse.

Kureha pointed to the Lighthouse. "According to someone I met, there's an item in here that can help us get into the sandstorm. Apparently this boss isn't supposed to be here. It's a player triggered event but the player never bothered to try and fight it, so now this sandstorm is just there. Some other players were trying to get a group together to fight it today."

"So we get the item, go in and steal the kill." I remembered back to being the victim of this tactic back in ALO.

"How will we get stronger if we just steal the loot?" Kureha raised an eyebrow, questioning my tactic. "We're going in fully loaded." As if to emphasise her point, she let the magazine fall out of her SMG and clicked it back into place.

I sighed, nodding my head. "Right…" I stood up to speak next. "By the way, yesterday, [ArN] told me about Squad Jam."

Itsuki raised an eyebrow. "Wow. You're already considering tournaments?"

"Well, me, Kureha and [ArN] need a Resurrection Kit. And it'll be a good way to get used to each other's fighting tactics more." I shrugged. "It's better than relying on Itsuki to revive us all the time."

Kureha and Itsuki shared a look. A smile began to form on Kureha's face. "Yeah, we could try it. The next Squad Jam is next week."

I looked at Arfa-sys, worried. "You didn't tell me it was next week."

Arfa-sys scratched the back of her head, giggling nervously. "I forgot what day it was."

I sighed, opening my menu and scrolling to a submenu called Tourney. There were two submenus, one being Squad Jam and the other being Bullet of Bullets. "What's this one?"

"It's a tournament where you go in solo." Itsuki sounded annoyed while talking about it.

"Itsuki was in the last one." Kureha explained. "Didn't you come fourth? That's still really good."

"It would've been if those two hadn't teamed up." He pushed himself off the desk and began pacing around the room. "It's a solo tournament. You're not supposed to team up."

Kureha shook her head. "Yeah, but at least it inspired Squad Jam. Hopefully they'll be less team ups in BoB thanks to that."

"I'm sorry, but what are you two talking about?" I opened the BoB menu and went to BoB2, the last one to happen. Immediately upon seeing Kirito's name, I knew. "Oh, him." I was very surprised to see that he wasn't the winner, instead being beaten by a player called Yuuki. "How come he got beaten by this girl?"

Kureha snorted. "People think he's dating her since they teamed up and then he lost to her. It's rather funny to ask him about it while Asuna is around. He gets all flustered while she drags him away to have a 'polite conversation'." She made quotation marks with her fingers, laughing. Obviously she was one of the people who asked him.

"You're horrible." I chuckled. Even Itsuki had a slight smile on his face.

Arfa-sys stood up and began pouting. "He's really nice. You shouldn't tease him."

I shrugged. "He's the one who said he wanted to kill me."

Kureha then opened her menu, a sly smile on her face upon her face. "Well, there's only a few teams registered right now, and one of them is Kirito's."

"Why don't we go there now? Zeliska should be on about now and we can ask her to join." I suggested.

"I've got nothing better to do." Itsuki nodded.

Kureha jumped up. "Sure, let's go."

The trip up to the Governor's Office took a while as we were trying to avoid other players. It was fun however. It wasn't everyday that you got to play what was almost a minigame inside the safe zone. Even now I was learning tactics that could be put to use out in the field. Kureha would flick a bullet out into the open, making someone curious and investigate. Or Arfa-sys would run into someone, apologising while we snuck past. I was surprised at the amount of female players. GGO seemed like a game for hardcore FPS gamers. Though I suspect many of them were using the free trial. Which reminded me that I needed to pay a fee in a couple of days to keep playing.

When we eventually got to the Governor's Office, sure enough, Zeliska was waiting with Daisy. She gave us a wave as we approached. "My, Itsuki, it's so strange to not see you with a girl trying to get an autograph. Though I suspect she's already tried." Kureha blushed while Itsuki rolled his eyes.

I explained to Zeliska what we were planning. Immediately, Daisy was glancing at Zeliska, which I found odd. "Master, you can't on that day. Your schedule is full."

"I know Daisy." Zeliska sighed in disappointment. "I wish I could help you four on the battlefield. But I might be able to help in other ways."

"The Uncrowned Queen, helping me out? Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" Itsuki raised an eyebrow.

Everyone else was laughing, but I noticed Arfa-sys was nervous. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"I think I saw something." Arfa-sys muttered.

Zeliska patted Arfa-sys's head. "Maybe we should head inside. Rei will need help to register because she's an AI."

The Governor's Office was mostly empty for once, except for the NPCs and one player who was leaning on the left counter as we came in. I could hear him muttering away to the NPC there, picking up some remarks that made me more concerned. I shook my head and followed Zeliska. She took us to the set of terminals that I had spotted the first time I was here.

"I'll show you how to work these [YN]." Zeliska navigated the menus of the terminal until we got to Squad Jam. "If you want, you can put in your real name and address to get rewards from Zaskar. Mostly just models of the guns in game."

I nodded, Zeliska moving away to allow privacy. I pressed the start button and my avatar popped up on screen, along with my avatar's name and type. Below it was several boxes I could type in. Just as Zeliska said, there were real world rewards I could get from putting in my information. _Why not?_ I begun to fill out my information.

Itsuki appeared behind me as I was putting in my information, suddenly turning away as he saw I was still filling it out. "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I was just going to ask what our team name is?"

Kureha also wandered over. "We need one so we can all be put into the same group."

"Why are you looking at me?" I sighed.

Arfa-sys jumped over. "Oh, Master, how about KIA? For Kureha, Itsuki and Arfa-sys?"

"What about me?"

"Your name is confusing Master."

I shrugged and nodded. "Fair enough. Now…can I please finish putting this in?"

The others left me to finish filling out before arriving at the team selection. I selected new team and filled out the letters KIA. Soon after, three new people had joined up. Soon after that, the team was locked so no one else could join.

"Next time, Zeliska can join on the end." I heard Kureha mutter. "KIAZ…not bad."

Itsuki stretched, checking his friend list. "Taipan is on. I need to go and talk to him. I'll join you guys once you get through the Lighthouse."

"Does Taipan require babysitting?" Zeliska asked, checking her inventory.

"No, we're just working on a quest that's in another area. I wouldn't want to slow [YN] down." Itsuki gave us a wave as he walked away.

Kureha frowned. "He does know that there is more than just [YN] in this party, right?"

"He's never really had a friend before. Maybe he's just struggling to adjust." Zeliska shrugged.

Daisy came over from a terminal. I hadn't even noticed she had disappeared. "Master, I've completely restocked your inventory with ammunition. Also, I've got those things you wanted."

"Ah, thank you Daisy." Zeliska gave Daisy a pat on the cheek. "Here you go."

My inventory suddenly had an alert. Kureha had obviously had one too, opening her menu. Her eyes immediately begun to glow. "You're just giving these to us?"

"Well, I did say I could help out in other ways. I don't have a use for these weapons." Zeliska shrugged.

I opened my inventory to find several weapons and accessories in there. Most of them were direct upgrades from my current equipment. I tried to equip something but a message appeared in front of my screen. "I need to get more DEX before I can equip the Midou-Type AR +." The Spiral Shadow + was completely fine though.

"We should level up while going through the Lighthouse though." Kureha pointed out.

I nodded, keeping the current AR that I had on. "We should probably begin heading out before it gets too late."

The others nodded in agreement. As there was a Teleport Gate inside the Governor's Office, we used that to head to Solitary Sands.

The sandstorm was still blowing strong. In fact, it seemed stronger. I could barely see anything from the spawn location. I looked around to see Kureha instinctively shielding her eyes. Arfa-sys had her arms out in front of her, reaching out to touch something. Zeliska wasn't bothering however, and held Arfa-sys's arm. I guess one of the advantages of VR was that you didn't have to worry about sand getting in your eyes.

"The Lighthouse is in the north-east part of the map!" Kureha yelled over the wind. "We're likely to get separated in this mess, so try and head there."

I began walking slowly through the sandstorm, occasionally looking back to see Kureha, Arfa-sys or Zeliska there. I found the mountain pass easy enough. According to the map, the most direct route would be over the rocky incline and to go over a maze of small mounds of stone. "Hey, I think-" I turned around and Kureha, Arfa-sys and Zeliska were gone. Well, at least I could get there quickly and wait for them.

I aimed my UFG up to the top of the mountain pass and fired, flying up to the top. Directly in front of me was a scorpion which seemed distracted by something else.

Almost as if it was aggravated by another player.

I immediately raised my AR, ready to strike at a moment's notice. Indeed, the scorpion was killed by another player. Thanks to their attack, I could tell where they were. I started firing at the spot. A small squeak came through the sandstorm, at least confirming I was right. I began running at the source.

Nothing was there.

I felt a sharp pain in my leg and looked down to see a knife in my leg, causing me to drop down to a kneeling position. A second later, that knife was in my arm and my gun was on the floor. I looked up to find a gun in my face.

"U-um, could you show me where the Lighthouse is?" The small avatar clad in pink asked, her voice shaking.

I let out a sigh. "You haven't really done the whole intimation thing have you?" This player was about the same height as me while in this position. Also, pink wasn't exactly the most intimidating colour, even when that colour is applied to the gun that's in your face.

"Sorry…" The player muttered. Now that I looked closer…was she crying? I honestly couldn't tell. She appeared to have tears in her eyes. "You will take me to the Lighthouse."

I hadn't learned much of hand-to-hand combat, but I knew the basics. I grabbed her gun and pushed her away. I found the clip release and threw the clip away. I went to pick up my gun but suddenly she was up and by it in very little time. "You're quick. Though I suppose that makes sense since you're small…"

"Really!?" The player's serious expression turned into a bright smile. In fact, her entire face was glowing.

I let out another sigh. "Listen, I'm heading to the Lighthouse too. Why don't we team up until then? It's better than one of us killing the other and then having to start over."

The player considered it for a second. "Give me back P-Chan."

"P-Chan?" I looked at the gun in my hand. "Um, sure." I passed her the gun back and she exchanged it for my AR. She began cradling the gun in her arms. "I'm [YN]."

"LLENN." The player nodded. "Wait, are you that player with the Arfa-sys Type X?"

"One of them." I looked at my map. "North-east…" I used my point on the map to find the direction to head in.

"North-east? Fuka told me it was in the east." LLENN pouted. "That probably means she's lost too."

"Well, hopefully once this sandstorm is taken care of, we'll never get separated from our friends again. Honestly, who starts a quest and doesn't finish it?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"So this way?" LLENN pointed to the north-east, having a compass in her hand. I nodded and begun following.

* * *

 **With Squad Jam incoming, that means it's time for the AGGO crew to be introduced. SJ is not too far away now, and I am really looking forward to it. Think of it as the "Alicization Turning" of this rewrite.**

 **I think a problem I can see with my rewrite is it adds in too many plot points. If this was the game, there would be a lot of pausing for dialogue. Though a lot of these moments can be worked into dialogue while you're playing the game. Like how certain characters when paired up will talk with each other. Though some moments could've been changed to gameplay, like with the fight with LLENN in this chapter. IDK, just some thoughts I had.**

 **Again, sorry for the delay on this chapter. My focus has been with gaming mostly thanks to some new friends I made. I'm still making progress with this though. Once again, thank you to all who read it. It's just incredible to see how many people actually read this.**

 **Any reviews are appreciated as always. Thanks to all who favourited/followed. Until next time, stay cool.**


	13. 12: The Lighthouse

**I'm back again. Honestly, thank you for taking the time to ready this. I feel like I'm thanking you all for a milestone every time I post one of these. 3,500 views. Just wow...**

 **Anyway, see you at the bottom.**

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Chapter 12

The Lighthouse

Honestly, it didn't take long to find the Lighthouse. There was very little in terms of enemies in the way. Most bees and scorpions, though I had spotted a rather menacing enemy in the sandstorm that we luckily avoided. LLENN sighed as she realised she was the only one there. I wasn't the first of my group.

"Master, I was so worried!" Arfa-sys dived into my arms. Kureha wasn't as forgiving, rolling her eyes and giving me an annoyed look. "When you ran ahead, Kureha began-"

Kureha placed her hand over Arfa-sys's mouth. "Why did you go so far ahead?"

"You said yourself, we were likely to get separated. I'm more amazed that you all got here before me." I shrugged.

Zeliska was staring at LLENN. "So who's your friend?"

"Someone I met in the sandstorm." I turned to LLENN. "I'll see you around LLENN."

She bowed. "Thank you for helping." She looked back at the sandstorm, a worried look on her face. I was tempted to invite her along, but I had already wasted enough time.

Arfa-sys beamed at LLENN. "She's so cute…" She whispered under her breath.

I shrugged again, mainly because I still couldn't see LLENN properly thanks to the sandstorm. "Come on, I've wasted enough of our time." I went up to the entrance of the Lighthouse.

Immediately inside was a room with mesh fencing lining the left and right walls, similar to the boss room of the Cave dungeon. However, as soon as we stepped beyond that, I sighed. The dungeon had the same design as every other one back in the Remnant Wasteland, except this one was taller. This one had a grey colour.

"What were you expecting?" Zeliska frowned, noticing my distaste.

"I don't know. Something more…sandy I guess." I just accepted that this was probably going to be the design for every dungeon.

Zeliska nodded. "Well, maybe Zaskar will change it up in the future."

Two sniper enemies spawned at the end of a long corridor. We all equipped our weapons ready. "Let's do this."

Ten minutes later

About ten minutes into the dungeon, we had come across a massive room. It was at least three times the size of the Cave boss and about five times as tall. Several walkways stretched across, creating a second floor with a variety of enemies on both, including snipers, Arachnids and normal assault enemies. It took nearly as long to clear the room as it took to get here.

After everything was cleared out, I noticed that one of my skills had levelled up. The Power Form 1 had increased to 2, giving me a better attack boost. I still had a little bit to go to upgrade my Omnia Vanitas but it was progressing nicely. I made a mental note to invest in some more skills when I got back to Glocken.

I let out a sigh as I put my hand up to my ear. "Are we done?"

"We're clear this side." Kureha confirmed. We had split up to clear out the room quicker. "We should meet in the-"

Her voice was suddenly cut off with a sound of a gunshot. I saw Kureha's health hit zero. "Get into cover!" Zeliska sounded panicked for a second. I ducked behind the railing of the walkway, giving me ample cover due to a sheet of metal.

Looking at the map, there seemed to be someone near the entrance. Most likely a sniper due to the volume of the gunshot and the fact it one shot Kureha. But even so, there had to be more than just the one.

"Master, there's four-" Suddenly the area where Arfa-sys had been exploded. Her health bar suddenly disappeared.

Zeliska, who happened to be the nearest to me, jumped over a railing and rolled behind a pillar, placing a grenade on the wall and began silently counting down. I waited to see what she was doing. She poked her head and dodged some gunfire. "[YN], get ready to charge them." I nodded, equipping my Photon Blade as that was going to be the best for a head on assault.

A blur went below me and Zeliska's grenade went off, sending them flying away. I jumped over the railing and re-enacted the skill that I had done during the fight with Bazalt Joe. A woman with long black hair took notice and grinned as I charged towards her. She activated a red Photon Sword and attempted to block my strike. However, her block just diverted my strike upwards into her arm, completely severing it and making it fall to the ground, along with the Photon Sword. As this happened, I heard an explosion and gunshot behind me and Zeliska's health was gone.

I was alone.

"Well, that certainly was unexpected." The woman produced a pistol and aimed it at my head. Her finger rested on the trigger, and the Bullet Line was right between my eyes. Another was aimed at the side of my head and finally, two curved Bullet Lines were coming from behind me.

"Wait! Hold on!" A squeaky voice caused everyone to halt. I sighed in relief as I recognised the voice to be LLENN's.

I turned slowly to look at LLENN, mainly due to the four Bullet Lines still aimed at me. Now we weren't in the middle of a sandstorm, I could actually see her properly, whereas before I could only see that she was wearing pink. She was still mostly pink, but now I could see that it wasn't exactly the bright pink that I suspected, but rather a darker shade that had hints of brown. She had pink hat with bunny ears resting on top of short brown hair. Even her eyes had a pink tint to them. As Arfa-sys had described, she was cute. "Hi again."

"Pito, I told you to not open fire if you saw a party of four!" LLENN pouted. "And Fuka, why did you kill that woman?"

"Sorry, after that grenade went off next to you, I just kind of went on auto fire."

The woman pointing the gun at me sighed, putting her pistol away. "Alright LLENN, I'll make it up to you later. How about a nice bit of cake in town?"

LLENN was still pouting, but I could tell she was trying to hide a smile. The Bullet Lines disappeared and I relaxed.

I took a moment to look at the other three people that were in the room other than me and LLENN. The woman who was down an arm was wearing a skin-tight bodysuit that was made of black material…no, wait. On closer inspection, it was a navy blue. Her long black hair was tied back in a ponytail that reached down to her waist. Then there was a tall guy that was built like a truck. He was really big, but that wasn't exactly all fat. He was currently carrying a backpack about the same size as LLENN. Add on body armour over a camouflaged uniform and he was definitely not someone I wanted to fistfight. His head was covered by a large hat with leaves covering it, but I could still see has rather square jaw and long, spiky hair. Overall, he looked like a bear. The remaining member was a small girl, maybe just a bit taller than LLENN herself. Sporting a backpack of her own, sand coloured uniform and black tights, and green body armour. She looked like the big guy almost. On her head was a green trench helmet, covering golden hair that was kept in a bun using a knife.

"Well, you're certainly an unusual lot." I smiled.

"I'm so sorry [YN]." LLENN bowed. "I told them to not shoot randomly."

"Hey, I saw someone who looked similar to that guy who has been talked about on the forums." The woman put up her hands…well, hand, trying to convince LLENN she was innocent.

"This is Pitohui." LLENN gestured towards the woman. "This is M." The big guy grunted. "And this is Fukaziroh."

Fukaziroh was suddenly in my face, thinking. "Hmm…not bad. I could get lost in his eyes. Though he's too tall for me. Guess that's just my avatar though. Overall, I'll give him an 8."

"Um…you're kind of in my space." I slowly backed away.

"LLENN, could you do me a favour and help me out? My arm seems to be missing." Pitohui walked over to LLENN who sighed. Meanwhile, M was looked at them with a disgruntled look.

I could help but laugh. They certainly were a lively bunch. It's not everyday I see someone in black striving for the attention of a girl in pink. But even so… "So, what am I going to do now?"

"Huh? Oh right." Pitohui seemed painfully unaware that I had just lost my entire squadron. "Well, I guess they'll be back soon. By that time, we'll have stopped the sandstorm."

I sighed. I couldn't exactly continue onwards on my own. The only reason I had gotten this far is thanks to Kureha's direction and Zeliska's high level. If I died, at least I would be back in Glocken. I smiled at the mental image of the three of them standing there, waiting for me to return.

"-use him as cannon fodder." I returned from my thoughts to see Pitohui and LLENN looking at me, one with a grin and another with an empathetic look.

"Hey, um, [YN]? Would you like to join us? We kind of owe you for killing your squadron." LLENN looked back at Pitohui. Judging by their conversation, I was just designed as a distraction for the boss. Even so, it was better than just standing around, waiting for everyone else to catch up.

"Sure, why not?" I shrugged. I quickly checked my reserve ammo. As long as I was careful, I should have enough for the thing in the middle of the sandstorm.

"Great! See, I knew we could all be friends!" Fukaziroh grinned. "Oh, by the way LLENN, I'll be joining you for cake."

I took another look at them together before continuing. _What a strange bunch._ Without much further ado, we continued into the dungeon.

Not long later

My group had managed to clear out the majority of the dungeon, so it didn't take us long to find the boss room. I took a moment to check my messages. At this point, I had gotten three messages from Kureha, one from Zeliska…

…and one from Kirito.

"Hey, are you coming to fight the boss or not?" Pitohui waved her hand in front of my face.

"Yeah, just a second." I quickly messaged Kureha to say that I was alive and was about to take on the boss of the Lighthouse. I made a mental note to check out Kirito's message later. I made sure my guns were loaded before following.

Along the journey, I had taken note of each of their weapons. Of course, LLENN was still using her P-Chan, but Pitohui had no end of weapons it seemed, happily showcasing a variety of firearms, including, but not limited to, sniper rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, handguns…the list goes on. Fukaziroh was wielding two grenade launchers, but tended to stay in the back not firing due to the smaller space. M, meanwhile, hadn't showcased his weapon.

I followed them into the boss room. It was a smaller, square version of the room I had been ambushed in. There were walkways only a couple of steps away from the entrance forming an upper square. A large pit was in the middle of the room.

Out of this pit rose a strange looking robot. It had a black orb at the top that glowed with red details, a small container on top. Pieces of white metal stretched out from the bottom, making a wing-like shape. Its name was the Ruthless Angel.

Immediately, a Bullet Line was targeted at LLENN who had been the first to enter the room. She began running, and I could see her speed in action for the first time. She was faster than anyone I had seen so far, easily making her way behind cover before the attack, which should've been impossible. We had started in the centre of the walkway and the nearest pillar of cover was in the corner, which was at least 20 metres away.

The boss seemed to attack by firing lasers. Even so, it was easily blocked by the pillar. Upon seeing this, I ran towards the pillar on the left, opposite to LLENN. I could see M making his way up to the walkway. Pitohui was in her menu, seemingly deciding what weapon she was going to use. _Couldn't you have done that outside the boss room?_ Fukaziroh was already firing at the boss, using her grenade launchers to tear into its health. Once again, there were three bars, and the first one was at half after only a few grenades.

I leaned around the pillar and began firing. With both mine, LLENN and Fukaziroh, the first bar didn't last long at all. The orb suddenly flashed red and the container at the top opened up. Several small drone enemies began to fly out from it. They immediately began targeting Fukaziroh who jumped and fired at her feet, sending her flying out of the line of fire while joyfully laughing. She hid behind the same cover as me.

I knew that the grenade launchers would be useless against the smaller targets, so I rolled out and began firing. The smaller drones didn't have a huge amount of health, only taking about ten bullets to kill, even less if I hit the red eye in the centre. Soon enough, they were cleared out. A Bullet Line came from the Ruthless Angel and I ducked back into cover.

"There it is!" Pitohui laughed in excitement. She retrieved a shotgun from her inventory and began firing with a crazed grin on her face. The boss focused on her, but she ignored it and kept firing. It took LLENN tackling her at the last moment to get her to move out of the way. Fukaziroh jumped out and began firing again, taking the boss down to half health.

An alarm began to go off, making me have to cover my ears. The black orb began to heat up, the entire thing going red. The entire boss began spinning around, a Bullet Line looping around the area.

"Oh darling, please tell me you're ready." Pitohui cheerfully chanted into her earpiece.

"Yeah." M muttered. A huge gunshot came from where M had gone up to. The Ruthless Angel was stunned, and the entire second half was gone. It rested in the air for a second. I was too amazed at the power of what M was using, missing most of the window. Even so, LLENN, Fukaziroh and Pitohui managed to get the final bar down into the red.

The container opened up and several drones came out once again. These were bulkier and carrying a much bigger weapon on the bottom. They immediately targeted everyone. "Scatter!" LLENN squeaked, running away from her cover.

"Come on then [YN]." Fukaziroh grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the pillar as several rockets slammed into the pillar. Even missing, the shrapnel hit my back and took some of my HP down. It wasn't significant damage thanks to Fukaziroh pulling me out of harm's way.

As soon as the rockets stopped, I switched my AR for the SMG, it being a better weapon for running and firing. The Ruthless Angel was targeting a shield of some kind on the walkway, a sniper rifle sticking out from a thin slit in it. I guessed that was what M was setting up, and what the backpack was for. It was doing a great job of preventing him any harm.

Pitohui was doing an amazing job at being in the line of fire, taking the attention of most of the drone as she fired shotgun blasts, getting a kill every shot. I stopped running to take out the final few drones. Another blast came from M's shield and the Ruthless Angel begun to spark with electricity. It lit up for a second before exploding in a shower of light.

I took a second to use my First Aid Kit to heal the little bit of damage that I had taken. M began folding up his shield and LLENN, Pitohui and Fukaziroh were exchanging high fives. I smiled as I levelled up twice and the rewards screen opened up.

Coordination Expansion, the second upgrade for Arfa-sys.

I headed over to the others and waved. "Thanks a lot. That's saved me a bit of searching."

"Ha! I'm surprised you're alive. We've tried this before and the boss always seemed to pull out a new trick to kill us." Pitohui laughed.

"Don't let your guard down." M muttered as he joined us. "The real fight is next."

Instantly the fun atmosphere had subsided. A boss that none of us had fought before. "I'll join up with my group now." I bowed. "Thank you again. Hopefully we run into each other again."

"Sorry we killed your squadron." LLENN still looked guilty. I waved it off before opening my menu.

 _What do you mean you're fighting the boss!?_

 _-Kureha_

Oh boy…

* * *

 **Well then, I hope I got to showcase at least something about each of the AGGO cast. While I prefer the main series, AGGO was a fun little spinoff. Haven't watched it in a while. I just think it's better for them to come in in a fashion that befitted them; PVP.**

 **Finally, the sandstorm has disappeared and now the OC will have to face the source. Maybe we'll see some old faces...maybe.**

 **Reviews**

 **Noseve: Thank you for your feedback. Glad you're enjoying. I do know that they had important roles in previous games. I've already got an idea in mind for them all. I look at Hollow Realisation and how they implemented Rain and Seven as a good example. They weren't needed in the story, so they were left for future content. Maybe that'll give you an idea for my plans for them.**

 **Thank you to all who have favourited and followed. Please continue to critic, I appreciate it. But for now, stay cool.**


	14. 13: Overgrown Serpent

**Really enjoyed writing this chapter. Nuff said, onwards!**

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Chapter 13

Overgrown Serpent

Immediately upon stepping outside, I felt like I had entered a different world. Whereas before I could barely see a foot in front of me, I could now see miles of sand. Straight in front of me, I could see a cluster of rocks and a chest sat on top of the centre rock. To the left of that, I could make out the tops of palm trees. Being so green, they obviously had a source of water. Behind the rocks was a pair of ships, rusted and half buried in the sand. Finally, on my right, a large facility sat alone. Other than that, I could only see sand. A lot of sand.

"How long are you going to admire the view?" Kureha tapped me on the shoulder. "Jeez, you should've waited for us."

I scratched the back of my head. "I figured though it would be better to join up with LLENN as they were already heading there."

Zeliska smiled. "He's owed a boss fight. After all, he did die during the Angry Berserker."

"I wasn't there." Kureha pouted.

"Master was lucky. If he had been killed, we would have to go through there again anyway." Arfa-sys giggled in anticipation, as if sensing the item I had.

I nodded. "The boss dropped another Arfa-sys Part. I'll install it when I get home."

"Yeah. Some squadrons have already engaged the boss. If we don't hurry, we'll be left out." Kureha opened the map. It was much easier to get a sense of how big the map was now. "The boss should be here." She pointed at a pit near the centre of the map.

"I have a friend who did this event last time." Zeliska opened her menu and pulled up an image. It was a giant worm that was halfway into the ground. It had brown, armour-like skin covering its back and a fleshy stomach. Its mouth split into four segments, inside which was a glowing light, as if saying 'shoot me here'. "It's called the Overgrown Serpent. It's surrounded by four smaller versions that are made up of two Poison Crawlers and two Sandworms."

Kureha frowned. "Any idea of the attacks?"

"Unfortunately, no. My friends didn't remember enough of the boss fight." Zeliska shrugged.

For some reason, I didn't believe her. This was supposed to be an event boss that effected an entire map. Surely there would be strategies that would allow people to quickly finish off the boss. I decided not to challenge it for now. "We should get going then." Kureha lifted her rocket launcher onto her shoulder. "Don't want to miss out on any more loot." She gave me a glance. I just rolled my eyes and grabbed my AR.

As we didn't bother attacking any enemies to make sure we made the fight, it didn't take us long to get there, mainly waiting for Arfa-sys to catch up as she was busy being amazed by the desert. I didn't see what was so amazing about it. The whole place looked dead. Other than the usual monsters that roamed around of course. The sky began to turn dark

The Worm Pit where the boss was located was nearly directly in the centre of the map, just north of the sunken ships. Already upon approach, gunfire rang through the air. We looked over the edge to see at least three groups all fighting the boss. One player in particular seemed to stand out. He was wearing something akin to a white motorcycle suit, a helmet covering his head with a luminous green visor over his face. He was moving at incredible speed, moving across the sand in a strange motion as he dodged the attacks of every enemy.

Speaking of the enemy, the Overgrown Serpent was sitting at half health, spitting out large balls of yellow liquid at everyone. It was exactly as the picture had captured it. The yellow liquid seemed to crackle with electricity as it slapped against the sand.

"Any ideas?" I looked at my reserve ammo and swallowed a lump in my throat. I really needed a refill. I only had just over 300 bullets in my AR and only 180 in my SMG. I would have to rely a lot on everyone else.

Kureha seemed to take note of this and replaced her rocket launcher with her SMG. "Me and Zeliska will take point. [YN] will stay back but will jump in to help us should we need to fall back and heal. But we should be able to take a lot of punishment. Rei will stay up here and support us with healing and long ranged fire."

"But can't I help Master fight?" Arfa-sys looked disappointed.

"Trust me, you'll be helping more than enough up here." I reassured her.

Kureha jumped down the side of the rocky pit, kicking up dust as she went. Zeliska carefully made her way down by stepping on small piece of rock that could be used as steps. I just jumped. The three groups looked pleased at the extra help arriving. The agile player jumped away, letting Kureha take aggro while they reloaded their shotgun that honestly looked more like a rifle. Kureha and Zeliska immediately begun chipping away at the Overgrown Serpent's health.

I stood there, waiting for them to slowly reveal each of the boss's moves. It seemed to alternate between three separate attacks. It would spit out those balls of electric liquid that we saw earlier, slam its body onto the ground and rotate once, or burrow into the ground before shooting out of it, knocking away anyone that was above it. Sometimes, it would combine the last two moves together. However, all the moves were telegraphed and easy to dodge. The only thing that seemed to make this fight difficult was the large amount of health this boss had.

Soon after the fight started, those four smaller worms that Zeliska had mentioned spawned in. One of them with shiny purple skin turned its attention to me. I gritted my teeth before beginning to expend my precious ammo. It didn't take long for the worm to burrow into the ground and begin approaching me. I flung myself backwards and grabbed my SMG from its holster, spraying at the slimy monster. Despite the obvious weak point, it was difficult to land a shot. I landed on my back, my magazine empty. I rolled over and pushed myself up. However, this worm decided to spit out purple liquid, and I learned why it was called a Poison Crawler. A red square with a skull and bubbles appeared next to my health bar, and it slowly began draining.

I quickly opened my menu as I ran away from the rest of the liquid. "[YN], I need to switch out!" Zeliska yelled.

"Two seconds!" I managed to put on my First Aid Kit but it wasn't doing enough to out heal the poison damage. I let the empty magazine of my SMG drop to the ground and replaced it. I ran towards Zeliska, spraying another magazine into the pursuing Poison Crawler. "[ArN], can you hit this thing?"

"I'm trying Master." Arfa-sys's voice echoed in my ear.

The worm buried into the ground again and went straight for me. I had my focus torn between defending Zeliska and taking on the Poison Crawler. I didn't time my dodge well, and I was flung backwards. I landed heavily on the ground, the wind being knocked out of me.

"So then [YN], did you miss us?"

Explosions happened all around me, knocking the Poison Crawler down. With a clear shot at its weak point, I unloaded into the glowing mouth. The Poison Crawler flopped over. I let out a sigh of relief as I saw LLENN running circles around the Overgrown Serpent. Pitohui and M were taking on a Sandworm. Fukaziroh was firing blindly from the top of the pit.

"So these were the players that killed us?" Zeliska smiled. "I suppose they aren't so bad after all."

I pushed myself onto my feet. A Healing Bullet hit me, restoring my health enough that I wasn't in danger of dying.

"Six o'clock." Zeliska nodded. I looked behind to see a large mound of sand approaching. I dodged out of the way as it launched itself out of the ground. I turned to fire, but then that agile player suddenly appeared in front of me and shot their shotgun point blank into the weak point of the Overgrown Serpent. It contorted in pain, its health in the final half of the final bar.

"Don't let up Pale Rider!" A player cheered as he began firing his LMG at the boss. Pale Rider dodged out of the way as it slammed onto the ground and began spinning. But instead of just doing one rotation, it kept spinning, sending dust flying up into the air. It seemed like a useless attack at first, until I realised we were being sucked in.

Everyone begun unleashing as much firepower as possible. The health slowly began decreasing, hovering at a quarter. It looked like we would all survive.

Then, a bullet tore the boss in half.

The bullet was silent. The sheer power must've meant it came from a sniper, but Arfa-sys hadn't fired. Her sniper was way too loud to be the one that fired the shot. M's was certainly off the table. I didn't know anyone else with a sniper that quiet.

The dust begun to settle. Everyone begun looking around for this mysterious shooter. It didn't take long to see them. They were stood at the top of the slope that acted as a way out of the pit. They slowly made their way down towards us.

Whoever they were, they wore a dark grey suit. Most of it was covered by a long cloak that had a camouflage pattern that was a mixture of dark green and black. On their head was a metal mask. I had seen some players wearing a similar mask, but the top half was missing.

Those blood red eyes…

It was the player from that forum I had seen.

They didn't speak as they approached, only slung their sniper over their shoulder and took their pistol from their holster. They pulled back the chamber, ejecting a bullet casing and letting it fall to the floor. They chuckled lightly as they looked around at the players. Their voice was deep, and had a filter that made it sound robotic, selling they were more machine than man. From their voice, they seemed male.

"Umm…thanks for the help." LLENN said nervously.

"Tell me, were you awestruck by my power, or scared?" The player didn't even look at LLENN.

You know when you have that feeling that something was wrong, and you knew that something bad was going to happen? It's rare to see about twenty players all have that feeling at the same time. Everyone gripped their guns tighter.

"You all think that power in this world is related to the amount of punishment you can serve out. Never knowing what true power looks like." The player performed a cross gesture with his left hand. He raised his pistol, showing the black star on the handle. "Allow me to acquaint you."

Pale Rider seemed to have enough. He dashed forwards at tremendous speed. The player lowered his arm so his gun was level with Pale Rider's head and fired once. The bullet hit Pale Rider directly in the forehead, but it didn't stop him. He aimed his shotgun at the player's head.

And then, he grasped at his heart. A deep, disgusting sound came from his throat. Pale Rider fell to the ground, clutching his chest, almost like he was trying to tear out his heart. And then he vanished, a disconnection error appearing over where his body used to be.

"What the hell did you just do!?" One of the other players raised their weapon, but the cloaked figure had vanished.

A chilling laugh filled the air. "Rash, just as expected. This is real power, real strength. Etch my name into your minds, the name that will fill everyone with fear. That name…is Death Gun!"

I stared at the disconnect sign. I had never seen someone react like that. Kureha was terrified, Arfa-sys seemed confused and Zeliska looked disgusted. Even if this was a joke, it was in poor taste.

"Hey, that guy didn't actually…get hurt did he?" Fukaziroh muttered under her breath.

"Interesting." Pitohui seemed to be the only one not disturbed by this.

 _What the hell do we take away from this?_

Our victory over the Overgrown Serpent seemed immediately soured by this event. Zeliska logged off soon after we got into town and Kureha headed back to her own house in Glocken. I leaned against the railing on the main walkway and sighed, trying to make sense of it. I couldn't get the image of Pale Rider clutching at his heart.

"At least we can finally make progress now in the desert."

I looked to see Kirito walking down the main street with a young girl with long black hair. In fact, she looked a lot like Asuna but with Kirito's hair and eye colour. "Maybe you can finally find the Underground Labyrinth now Daddy."

 _Daddy?_ A thousand ideas ran through my head at once, but I pushed them out of my head as Kirito noticed me. I remembered the message he sent to me, but I guess I could just ask him directly. Kirito put up a hand as he approached. "Hey, you okay? You look like hell."

I debated for a second to tell him about Death Gun. "We just saw some creepy guy out in the desert."

"So you're the ones who stopped the sandstorm then?" Kirito seemed to ignore the part about the creepy guy, although I saw a spark in his eye. "Congrats. We were planning on going after the boss, but it was just me and Yui online."

The young girl bowed. "Nice to meet you."

"You too, though I would ask why you called Kirito your dad." I raised an eyebrow at Kirito who was scratching the back of his head.

"Mommy and Daddy kissed!" Yui beamed.

"Yeah…um, she's mine and Asuna's daughter." Kirito gulped, seemingly nervous about how I'd interpret his explanation. "Not as in…we did… Our virtual daughter."

"She's an AI Master." Arfa-sys set my concern at ease.

Kirito nodded. "Thank you." He muttered under his breath. "So anyway, did you get my message?"

"Yeah, but I never got chance to open it." I opened my menu and headed to my messages. I opened the message.

 _When you get the chance, would you like to join me and a couple of friends on a quest?_

"I don't have any reason not to, but right now, it looks like your own." I closed the menu. "And I need to get ready for Squad Jam…"

"No worries then." Kirito patted me on the shoulder. "After Squad Jam then. I wouldn't want you to get too good of an idea how I fight."

So, he was joining Squad Jam too. I couldn't help but smile at the idea of us clashing again. "Well then, make sure you don't die before I get a shot on you."

"Likewise."

Arfa-sys and Yui looked at each other and sighed in synchronisation. "Boys…"

* * *

 **Originally, this chapter was called "Blood Red Eyes", but that was too obvious. Death Gun has finally revealed himself. I still want to do the XeXeeD scene, but this was a good way to introduce him directly to the OC and the others, as it establishes him as a looming threat. Of course, we've had little scenes with him beforehand, but now he's out in the open.**

 **Next chapter, we'll be having a small scene only a day later, before skipping straight to Squad Jam. Oh man, I've been looking forward to writing this. Some twists incoming, and the first part of Kirito Mode.**

 **Sorry this chapter has been a while, I've been making progress on Nightshade. I can't promise on a release time frame, but I'll try to get on with it as soon as possible.**

 **As always, thanks to everyone who favourited and followed. Please leave any criticism below. As always, stay cool.**


	15. 14: Bring it on Gunner

**I'm really sorry for the long delay. I'll explain down below why it's taken so long. Hopefully there won't be such a long delay in the future.**

* * *

Chapter 14

Bring it on Gunners

I yawned as I woke up. I looked over at my computer and saw two messages there. One was from Kureha and the other was from the developers of Squad Jam. I pulled my chair over and opened my messages. The one from Kureha was just asking when I would be on. The one from the Squad Jam devs was the rules of the mode.

The map was a mixture of different terrain, environments and weather. Players would be spawned with their squads at a random point on the map, each squad at least a kilometre away from each other. Every ten minutes, a satellite scan happened that revealed the squad leaders. Should a squad leader die, the next in line would be shown on the scan. A winner would be decided when all other squads were eliminated.

Tonight, my family were heading out, so I was free to play Squad Jam all night. It was only a few hours away now. I put on my Amusphere and took a deep breath. "Link Start."

I crouched down, aiming the rocket launcher. It kept the same properties as all the other weapons in the game, but due to travel time, I needed to anticipate the enemy move. I closed one eye to get a better view of the trajectory before firing. The Queen Wasp moved exactly as I thought and the rocket hit, sending it spiralling to the ground along with the other bee enemies around it. I saw that I had levelled up in the corner of my vision, meaning I was now level 49.

It was kind of funny. I had started this game three weeks ago and I was already at the second area and taking part in a tournament that most take months to get ready to participate in. I sat down on the ground as I begun to check my inventory.

The sand behind me shifted. I whipped around and pointed my AR at the source. Bazalt Joe was suddenly leaping at me, knife in hand. I began firing at his head point blank, his health drained quickly but not enough to kill him. He stabbed at my head but I managed to roll out of the way.

"What the hell?" My bullet circle was expanding and shrinking rapidly, my heart racing from the sudden attack.

"Darn it. You were sitting right there, it was perfect." Bazalt Joe sheathed his knife. "Look, if I attacked now, you would just kill me."

"So you want me to lower my gun so you can get that pistol in your hoister and shoot me?" I rolled my eyes.

Bazalt Joe looked disappointed. "You've gotten good since last time. I remember you running away and ambushing me." He chuckled, slowly standing up.

"So why are you here? Going to challenge me against for Arfa-sys?"

"Of course!" Bazalt Joe jumped to his feet and pointed at me. "And you have no choice but to accept!"

I was confused for a second, then I realised what he was getting at. "Oh…you mean…"

Bazalt Joe smirked. "That's right. Me and my squadron will be in Squad Jam. And we'll be gunning for you."

"Why am I not surprised?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"You better not die before we catch up to you." He began to walk away. "And if we kill you, you'd better hand over that Arfa-sys!"

I sighed before turning my attention back to the Queen Wasp that had respawned. I began firing with my AR when I noticed something was on my back. I grabbed at it and found it was a Sticky Grenade. I quickly threw it away, sand blowing into my face as it exploded. Luckily it had gone far enough that it didn't kill me.

"Sneaky son of a gun…"

"Welcome home Master!"

Arfa-sys was as cheerful as ever, standing in her usual pose of fists on hips. Kureha was sat on the table, watching the screen at the back of the room. Itsuki was leaning against the wall, noticeably tired. And Zeliska was sat on my bed with Daisy.

"Hello [ArN]. Sorry for being late." I scratched the back of my head. "Got distracted while grinding."

"What a surprise." Kureha rolled her eyes.

I looked at Itsuki who hadn't acknowledged that I had come in yet. "What's wrong?"

"His guild has been harassing him for joining us in Squad Jam." Zeliska shrugged. "They wanted to do it with him."

Itsuki sighed, standing up straight. "I told them that I was getting bored. Then I told them I'd be back soon. Taipan is watching things for now, hoping that the entire squadron doesn't tear each other apart while I'm gone."

"If it's too hard for you to stay with us, then you don't have to." I shrugged.

Itsuki smiled sadly. "You can't get rid of me that easily. Besides…you make the game entertaining again."

Kureha stood up. "Alright. We've wasted enough time."

Arfa-sys opened her menu and dropped a bunch of items onto the table. Included were several grenades, within that being smoke, impact, sticky, frag and flash, several anti-vehicle mines, some headsets and a book. "I went shopping last night Master. Hopefully this will be enough."

"I too have brought some things." Daisy stood up and opened her menu, dropping several Emergency First Aid Kits and some gas masks.

"This is wonderful you two." Zeliska smiled.

"Sorry, but what's the point of these when we have basically unlimited version of these." I frowned.

"Because those are on a cooldown. These can only be used once but whenever we need them." Kureha began sorting through the pile. "Jesus, how much money do you two have?"

"Master gave me quite a lot." Daisy was trying to hide a small smile.

Kureha passed around the equipment. It wasn't exactly an even split, but each of us had at least 2 of each grenade type, an anti-vehicle mine, a headset, 3 Emergency First Aid Kits and a gas mask. I had an extra frag grenade.

I picked up the book. "What's this?"

"A guide to Squad Jam!" Arfa-sys smiled. "It has a drawing of the map and some of the best places to stay hidden marked on it."

Zeliska frowned, taking the book from Arfa-sys. She looked at it for several minutes and nodded. "It seems accurate." She stood up and sighed. "I wish I could help more, but I need to go now. I'm already running behind." She waved goodbye before heading off with Daisy.

"Was it just me, or did Zeliska seem tired?" Kureha finished attaching the gadgets to her belt, looking concerned.

"I'm sure she knows what she's doing." Itsuki said dismissively.

The Governor's Office was full today. It wasn't really surprising but I had never seen such a crowd gathered in GGO. Obviously this event was a big deal. I could see several teams giving interviews, including LLENN over in one of the booths. She looked way out of her depth, but Fukaziroh looked like she was talking enough for the both of them.

I couldn't see Kirito's group, but I recognised a few faces. Bazalt Joe and his two friends were investigating the terminals. That Speigel guy that Sinon was talking to was sat alone. He looked like he was muttering to himself. Some other random players that I had seen around the field, from Tarako's gang and the Overgrown Serpent fight. Some even waved at us as we entered.

Arfa-sys took us over to a spare booth. I sat down and began looking at the menu that was provided by an NPC. I ordered a lemonade and to my surprise, a compartment opened in the middle of the table and provide the drink. I passed on the menu and took the cup.

"Thank god this isn't the Bullet of Bullets." Itsuki muttered. "There are so many preliminaries. And there's so many people in here."

"More than this?" I raised an eyebrow in surprise. There already seemed to be a lot of people here to begin with.

Kureha leaned back onto the seat and sighed, a smile creeping onto her face. "I'm getting excited now. I can't wait to get out there."

"Kureha! Please calm down! Your heartrate will get too high and you won't be able to aim!" Arfa-sys's eyes were wide in alarm. Obviously she wasn't taking too well to this setting.

I shrugged. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Yeah, we have your absurd luck on our side." Itsuki swirled his drink around in his hand.

A speaker activated in the room. "Welcome to Squad Jam everyone!" A screen in the centre of the table blinked to life. It was showing MMO Stream with the usual presenter and a middle-aged man.

I remember watching MMO Stream a few years ago. Specifically during the SAO launch. After hearing about that incident, I started watching it less and less because all the talk was about how everyone was trapped inside SAO and how long it had been since the incident had started. A small wave of nostalgia washed over me as I saw the show hadn't changed even now.

"I'm once again joined by our sponsor for Squad Jam. We won't keep you waiting long, as it's only a few minutes from the match beginning."

"I wish all players luck. I hope that you will do your best. I'm very happy to see so many new players joining in on this Squad Jam."

"Indeed! Now, let's take a look back at last Squad Jam."

I felt a chill run down my spine. I couldn't quite describe it, but it felt like someone was watching me. Of course, that could be one of a hundred people, but this felt different. More malicious. I looked around the room but couldn't see anyone that stood out. "You okay?" Kureha looked at me, worried.

"It's nothing." I took a last inventory check before the match started.

"Wow, I'm impressed. You're certainly more prepared than the last time I saw you."

"K-Kirito!" Kureha jumped out of her seat. "Are you taking part too?"

Kirito nodded. "I thought [YN] would've mentioned that to you."

I scratched the back of my head, laughing lightly. "It might've slipped my mind in between all the grinding."

A knowing smile passed on Kirito's face. "Yeah, I know the feeling. Oh yeah, well done to you all for clearing the Overgrown Serpent."

Kureha blushed and waved it off. "I wasn't even there…" Itsuki grumbled under his breath, taking a long sip from his drink.

Kirito ignored him. "Well, don't think I'm going to go easy on you if we meet on the field." He waved goodbye as he headed back to his group. I could make out Asuna, Sinon and Leafa, and two others that I didn't know. One had pink haircut short with white body armour covered by a brown vest. She had several pouches over some red camo shorts and white boots. The other looked young, probably too young to be playing a game like this. Her brown hair was tied into two pigtails. Her outfit was red and blue jacket and skirt, with thigh high stockings and blue shoes.

"Great, Kirito has six people in his group." I sighed.

"He's overcompensating isn't he?" Itsuki glared at him. "He already has a Resurrection Kit."

"Maybe his friends need one." Kureha shrugged. "Oh well, we can't let that stop us."

Kureha's excitement had obviously become contagious, as I was being to feel it. The screen in the middle of the table switched back to MMO Stream.

"Alright then gunners, are you ready for the second Squad Jam!?"

A roar when around the room. I swore I could hear someone firing off a gun, but I could barely hear it over the noise of the crowd. _And BoB has more people?_

"Then let's count it down!"

We stood up. I took out my AR and loaded a magazine into it. "Remember, wherever we spawn, we should find cover and get to high ground." Kureha muttered, barely audible over the crowd.

I put my fist in the middle. Everyone else joined in and we exchanged a fist bump. "No backing down now." I smiled.

"I'm going to be sick." Arfa-sys whined.

A blue light surrounded us and we were in a black void. There was a screen above us displaying all the names of the contestants and the time remaining until the game officially started. I saw the names of the other two members of Kirito's team, Lizbeth and Silica.

Almost immediately, I noticed something was missing. There was only one name in one of the teams. Sterben. Somehow they had managed to slip in alone. _Should be an easy kill._ I smiled as I made sure my SMG was on standby…and on my belt hung my Photon Sword, just in case.

3…

2…

"We're going to win." Kureha muttered under her breath, mostly to herself.

I patted her on the shoulder. "Yeah, we are."

BEGIN!

* * *

 **So the reason this has taken so long. I've been working on writing for a game. I've had to write a lot for it, and because I wanted to make sure that I was going to get the writing position, I went overboard on writing for that. This being neglected has been a side effect, as well as my mental health declining a lot. But I'm back and hopefully I won't leave you without a new chapter for ages again. I'm really sorry.**

 **Next though is something I've been looking forward to for ages. Time for Squad Jam! And due to the timing, I'm throwing in the second Bazalt Joe fight. I have so many ideas for it that I hope you'll look forward to.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Noseve: Glad you're enjoying it. I hope I won't disappoint.**

 **Anyway, one last thank you. So many views on this story. My mind has been blown at how many people are reading this, whether you're returning or new. So thank you all so much :)**

 **Next chapter will be coming soon...I hope. So, until then, Stay Cool.**


	16. 15: Squad Jam

**Told you it won't be that long again. I'm very happy with this chapter and how it turned out. Please enjoy and until next time, Stay Cool.**

* * *

Chapter 15

Squad Jam

The area was a rocky mountainside, having spawned us on a ledge that could see for several miles into the battlefield. A waterfall was on my left, falling down into a river that carried on into a forest. I could make out a team in a clearing in the forest, obviously only just spawned like us, but no other teams were visible. Past the forest, I could see a city concealing the horizon.

Itsuki laid down at the edge and looked through the scope of the sniper. "I can't hit the team down there. But I can confirm it's Bazalt Joe and his lackies."

I took out my scope and looked through it at the forest. Indeed, it was Bazalt Joe. They hadn't spotted us yet it seems and were definitely out of range of my AR. "How about you [ArN]?"

"No good Master." Arfa-sys exchanged her sniper for an LMG.

"Where did you get that?" I didn't remember ever buying her that gun.

"Joe gave it to me Master."

Kureha smirked. I couldn't help but appreciate the irony as we'll likely be fighting Bazalt Joe first. Itsuki wasn't taking the situation lightly however. He already preparing for a fight by having a frag grenade on the side of his belt. Kureha lay down next to him and opened the map. There were several locations of interest. We were in the south-east part of the map. The city extended all across the map, occupying the entire left part of the map. A dome structure occupied the centre, along with some sort of hilly area. The only other place other than our mountain was a snowy area directly north of us.

"The map has been changed since the first Squad Jam it seems." Kureha sat up, cross legged and taking out the guide. "Yeah, that dome and most of the town wasn't there last time. Hell, these mountains weren't here."

"The first scan is going to alert Joe to the fact we're here." I couldn't see Bazalt Joe moving anytime soon.

Arfa-sys shook her head. "No Master, only the leader gets revealed, which is you."

I could already see a plan hatching in Kureha's head. I sighed. "I'll stay behind."

"No, that could be a problem if another team has spotted us and move to take you out." Kureha pointed at the map. "We'll split into two teams…"

I crouched down in the leaves, readying my rifle. "Master, are we in position?" Arfa-sys's voice came through my earpiece.

"Yeah. The scan is in 10 seconds." I could see Joe's group through the small gaps in the trees. "You remember your target [ArN]?"

"Yep, their pistol user, right?"

I confirmed it before getting ready. I sucked in as much air as possible before activating Sentry Style 1. The scan activated. A few seconds of quiet muttering before-

Gunshots sprayed the forest below me, exactly as planned. Because the map didn't show how high in the air you were, Kureha had said we should camp in the trees. As Sentry Style made me completely immobile, I wouldn't shake the branches, giving the surprise away. Which gave Arfa-sys and Itsuki the chance to-

Two sniper rifles went off simultaneously, taking down Bazalt Joe's two friends with a clean headshot. I leapt from the trees, Kureha coming from the opposite side. Bazalt Joe had surprise on his face for a moment, but dropped his guns, taking the bullets that I was firing. He grabbed Kureha out of the air by the neck and spun her around in the way of my gunfire. I stopped firing and landed on the ground.

"Hehe, I never expect that you would spawn so close, yet alone come up with a plan this quickly." Bazalt Joe chucked. He looked around. "So where are your friends? I doubt you two made those shots by yourselves."

I frowned. Due to the angle that both Arfa-sys and Itsuki were at, they couldn't make the shot without hitting Kureha should they miss. Maybe Itsuki would take that risk, but Arfa-sys wouldn't. I just needed to give either of them a good shot without Joe realising…and before he strangled Kureha to death.

"Damnit, I guess this means I've lost." He sighed. "Oh well, at least I get to take one of you out with me. Still, I don't count this as a loss."

"What do you mean? It's not our fault you didn't see us up on that mountain." I kept my gun up as I stepped to the right. Kureha's health was beginning to decline a lot faster now.

Bazalt Joe moved so Kureha was still in between us. "We had trees in the way."

"We could see you pretty clearly." Kureha strained to say, joining me in the taunting.

"Besides, you could've moved." I took another step. Bazalt Joe turned again. "By the way, that was a hint."

A gunshot went off to my left, hitting him in the side of the head. Amazingly, he didn't die, but was left at extremely low health. I activated Dash Attack and Kureha pushed away from him as hard as possible with her feet. I managed to dash under her and slam into Bazalt Joe's stomach, knocking him back and making him let go of Kureha. Somehow, his HP remained above zero.

He landed next to one of his LMGs and began spraying it at us. I activated Sentry Style and Kureha crawled behind me, being shielded from the gunfire. I held it as long as the game would allow me to before having to give up and stood up straight, my invincibility wearing off. A couple of shots drained my health before another crack of a sniper rifle opened a hole in Bazalt Joe's chest and he fell to the ground, motionless.

Kureha immediately took an Emergency First Aid Kit, her health returning at half. Arfa-sys came charging out of the forest and dived on Kureha, crying with worry. I was prepared to relax. "Another team is approaching. They're about 20 metres away from me, heading straight for you." Itsuki's voice was barely above a hiss.

"Oh great." I quickly reloaded as we retreated into the trees.

Kureha looked rather panicked. "Oh no…I should've checked the map before jumping down. I just assumed Joe was the only group around."

"It's fine. Worst case scenario, it's a group of six." That was a lie. Worst case scenario, it was someone like LLENN's group. But bringing that up wasn't exactly going to improve morale. "Kureha, you should stay back for a bit."

"I'd hate to say it, but our best option would be to slip away."

Itsuki made a good point, but at this point, they would see us running away and chase. "We'll have to be sneaky."

Kureha sighed. "I'm not going to blend into the forest well with this pink."

"So we fight?" I had run out of ideas for running or sneaking away.

"No. Just get ready to run." Itsuki said calmly.

Suddenly, the trees around where Itsuki had been hiding exploded, bark and branches flying everywhere. Kureha grabbed me and Arfa-sys and ran for it. Gunfire was ringing in my ears. I could see that Itsuki's health wasn't decreasing at all, which meant he was running too, most likely in a different direction that us.

We kept running until we couldn't hear the gunshots anymore. Kureha bent over, wheezing. Arfa-sys fell to the ground and groaned. "We should…check in with…Itsuki…" I managed to say in between strained breaths.

"He's fine..." Kureha panted. "See…his health is right there…" She pointed to the ground. I let out a wheezing laugh, but knew what she meant.

"I'll meet up with you later. I've got a few on my trail. Should be easy enough to lose them with me being off the map."

"Sure thing." I looked over at Kureha who was looking at the map. The scan had just come in and we were regaining our bearings.

"The city has a few teams inside." Kureha stroked her chin. "If we can slip in without being noticed, that would be a great place to meet up."

I looked at the teams that were there. A team called SHINC, another called NLB, Kirito's group and LLENN's. I could help but smile. "If we are spotted though, this certainly will be a lot of fun."

Kureha nodded, loading her rocket launcher. "Yep."

Arfa-sys groaned from her position on the floor. "Five more minutes please…"

I picked Arfa-sys off the ground and crouched down slightly. "Come on, I'll give you a lift."

"Hang on, what are you doing?" Kureha's face had turned red.

I frowned, confused. "What? I did this all the time with you, remember?"

Somehow, Kureha's blushing turned to a darker red. I ignored it as Arfa-sys wrapped her arms around my shoulders and I lifted her up, beginning to walk. Kureha was frozen for a few seconds before she began following.

When you aren't being attacked and are simply walking through the battlefield, it was kind of peaceful. You couldn't have that kind of experience out in the wild, with monsters around every corner. But in Squad Jam, there were no monsters. I could finally take in the things I never noticed before. The air was dusty and warm, bringing up the temperature slightly. Despite that, the clouds in the sky never moved. Most would call that poor game design, but for me, it created a disconnect between the land and sky. And in the distance, I could make out a shadow of a ship.

Arfa-sys had fallen asleep on my back, but I could hear her muttering in her sleep. "Mother…" I smiled as we approached the city border and placed her down against a building, shaking her lightly to wake her up.

"There shouldn't be many people here." Kureha had shaken off her embarrassment. I yawned before looking at the map again. The scan had concluded a minute ago, but based on last locations, it was likely that SHINC and LLENN's group were fighting, and NLB had run off somewhere else. Kirito's group weren't too far off, but if they were going to attack us, it would take a few minutes for them to arrive.

"Itsuki, where are you?" I asked.

"I'm about 3 minutes away from the city. Managed to get this bike working but I'm not exactly great at driving." Itsuki chuckled. "I'm joking. But I'll be there soon."

Kureha placed the map back on her waist. "We should scout the area. If I'm right, Kirito will be coming for us. And when he does, I'd like to have the advantage."

I couldn't help but smile smugly. "Sure thing."

Kureha headed off to check some of the side streets. I walked through the main street with Arfa-sys, sticking to the sidewalk just in case we were ambushed somehow. She was stretching a lot. "[ArN], how much sleep did you get recently?"

"Type X's don't need sleep Master, we're that great!" Arfa-sys tried to feint it, but I could tell she was tired. I gave her a stern look and she sighed. "I'm alright Master, honestly."

"Promise me that you'll get some sleep after this."

"Of course Ma-"

Arfa-sys's head was thrown backwards. I saw a red dot in her head, a DEAD sign appearing above her. As soon as her body hit the floor, an explosion happened down the street, cutting off Kureha from us. I turned to the source of the gunshot when another bullet hit me.

I felt numb. My body would no longer move upon command. My eyes could, and I saw the electric bullet in my shoulder. _A stun shot?_

Something coming towards me was distorting. I saw the red eyes of that man. He slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder and drawing his pistol.

"A false hero, only making his fame by being gifted with luck."

His voice was cold, steam shooting out from his mask. I could feel my heartrate increasing as he got closer with every step. He pulled back the top of his pistol, a spare shell removing itself from the chamber. The sound of the bullet hitting the ground seemed to echo throughout the street.

"I wonder what your friends will do when you die? Mourn you? Lash out in anger?"

I didn't understand what he was on about, but the image of Pale Rider flashed in my mind. The way he clutched at his heart, like he was trying to tear it out.

 _Is that what is going to happen to me?_

The black gun aimed towards me.

"I am Death Gun, and I alone have real power…to kill…"


	17. Kirito Mode 1: Real Power

**Hello again.**

 **Sorry for leaving you with that cliffhanger last time. I felt like it was more effective. But don't worry, I won't leave you hanging again. Hope you liked that chapter though. I've been looking forward to writing it for a long time. Anyway, see you at the bottom.**

* * *

Kirito Mode 1

Real Power

"Asuna, are you ready!?"

"Leave it to me!"

I slashed through the robot and jumped away, allowing Asuna to jump in, spraying a magazine into it. The robot exploded into a thousand shards.

I deactivated my Photon Sword and high fived her. I noticed the sky was turning gold, signalling it was almost time for Squad Jam to start. We probably should've started heading towards the Governor's Office a while ago, but Leafa has insisted we get to the oil refinery first to activate the fast travel point.

Speaking of Leafa, I crouched down next to her body and used the Resurrection Kit. Leafa jumped up and groaned. "We're really lucky we have that."

"Yeah, but remember it's on a cooldown and we only have two right now." I hung my Photon Sword on my side.

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to keep reminding us." Lizbeth slung her shotgun over her shoulder and yawned. "I'm beat."

Asuna frowned. "You can't be tired already Liz, we've still got to get through a tournament yet."

"I know…" Liz sighed.

I smiled at them, opening my menu and checking the time. "Oh crap! We're really falling behind." It was only five minutes until the tournament started. Everyone shared a panicked look before we all selected the Lobby Entrance fast travel destination.

Silica and Sinon were stood outside, looking worried. Sinon shot an annoyed look at me. "Let me guess, there was something you wanted to get before heading in?"

"Actually, this time it was me." Leafa scratched the back of her head nervously.

"Must run in the family." Sinon rolled her eyes.

I shook my head. Somehow Sinon always brought it around to being my fault. "Well, we're here now. Shall we head in?"

"Hold on!" Silica opened her menu, passing around items. She passed me an Emergency First Aid Kit and a Melee Booster Kit. "I wish I could've gotten more, but there wasn't a lot of credits left after me and Liz prepared for the last tournament."

"Yeah, we kind of went overboard." Liz smirked. "But then someone had to ruin our fun."

"Jeez, it's not my fault. Besides, we didn't even get the main thing we wanted." I looked inside the door to see [YN] and his friends were already in there. "Speak of the devil. We should stop chatting otherwise we'll never make inside."

We headed inside and already I was feeling slightly uncomfortable. The crowd wasn't as large as the one from the second Bullet of Bullets, but due to the nature of Squad Jam, there were large clusters of people, which almost made it feel like a bigger crowd. At least during BoB, I could find a space away from the crowd.

"Alright then, over here!" Leafa grabbed my shoulders and pushed me towards a spare booth. I sat down on the outside, opening my menu and checking over my equipment. "By the way Kirito, did you ever log out and have dinner."

I froze, realizing that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. "Um…"

"Kirito, do I have to force you to log out every time you need to eat." Asuna pouted.

"You haven't logged out either since this morning." I smirked, knowing that she hadn't eaten either. Though soon after, I realised my stomach was rumbling and needed to grab something to eat, otherwise I wouldn't be able to concentrate during the match. "I'll be right back."

"Bring us back something too!" Liz yelled after me. _This is why I never have any credits._

The best thing about ordering in GGO is that when you placed the order, a small robot would deliver it to your table. So I didn't have to hang around the crowds for long. On my way back however, I passed by [YN]'s table and noticed the Photon Sword on his side. _That wasn't there before._ I shrugged to myself before heading over.

"It's nothing." [YN] turned back from scanning the crowd.

I stopped just in front of their table and smiled. "Wow, I'm impressed. You're certainly more prepared than the last time I saw you."

Kureha jumped up, her face aglow. It reminded me of the first time I had met Rain and she realised that I had caught her out. A mix of embarrassment and happiness. "K-Kirito! Are you taking part too?"

I nodded. As I began to talk, I took note of their weaponry. Their weapons were direct upgrades from their previous weapons that I had seen, though there could be other weapons that they could be hiding, and the skills they had were unclear.

"Well don't think I'm going to go easy on you if we see you in the field." I waved goodbye as I walked away. I was hoping that they would survive until we met in the field. I've been looking forward to fighting them for a while.

As I approached our table though, I saw three familiar faces. "Yo Kirito!" Klein put up a hand. Agil grinned as he turned to look at me. Yuuki was sat in between Asuna and Silica.

"You managed to make it." I returned a fist bump from Agil.

"Of course man. It's a shame we can't join in." Klein shrugged before grabbing a piece of cake from the table.

"Hey, that's mine!" Liz grabbed it back off him.

Yuuki laughed. "Well, I prefer a friendly competition. After the BoB, I'm a little worried that someone might try tearing off my head with their bare hands."

"Yeah, there are some rather hardcore people here." Silica muttered, looking around the room.

I sat down next to Leafa again and pulled a plate of cake over.

"So what did they have?" Sinon frowned at me.

"Basically just a direct upgrade. Though [YN] does have a Photon Sword now." I pushed the cake around my plate with the spoon. "I don't know if they have any new skills."

"We should be careful of that special gun that [YN] has." Sinon muttered.

"It's like we're not even here with those two…" Asuna sighed.

"Yep." The others said in unison.

"Alright then gunners, are you ready for the second Squad Jam?"

The room erupted. I began eating as fast as possible. The cake wouldn't satisfy my real world hunger, but it would stop it from distracting me in game. I barely heard the announcer start counting down.

"Hopefully our spawn is good." Leafa stretched her arms up to the sky. "I know what it's like to lose thanks to a bad spawn." Sinon smiled to herself.

A blue light surrounded me and we were teleported into a void. A list of the teams that were participating began scrolling down, while a timer began ticking down. I saw a few names that I recognised from the top rankings, and even some that has participated in the tournament where [YN] got his Arfa-sys. There were only a few that I was worried about. Namely LPMF. Only LLENN and M were in the last one, yet they managed to win the entire thing.

Everyone had their weapons ready for when the timer ticked over to zero, and another blue light surrounded me.

In place of the void was grass.

I couldn't see a foot in front of me. I could barely see Leafa on my right. "We're in some sort of dome." Asuna's voice came from within the grass.

"That wasn't in the last map." Silica muttered behind me.

"This isn't a good spawn." Leafa sighed.

Sinon had been silent, which was unusual. We were supposed to spawn a kilometre away from the nearest team, but there was no way to tell if this arena was actually bigger than a kilometre.

"We should probably move. We can't see anything." Asuna suggested. I opened the map to see the nearest exit, only to find we were in the direct centre of the arena. "Should we head towards the city so that Sinonon can set up her sniper?"

"That's probably best." I nodded, closing the map.

"Lisbeth, take point. You'll be able to take out anyone first if we run into anyone." Sinon exchanged her sniper for her pistol.

We walked west, leaving a trail of pressed down grass as we walked through it. We had formed a line, Lisbeth in front with me second, us being the quickest to kill at close range. It didn't take us long to get out however, and soon, we were met with a large open plain between the arena and the city.

"All that worrying for nothing." Leafa let out a sigh of relief.

Six Bullet Lines suddenly appeared, aiming straight at us. I activated my Photon Sword and swung downwards at the first bullet, slicing it in two, before bringing it around to cut the next. Everyone retreated behind a pillar and I used Omnia Vanitas to get out of danger.

I looked at Leafa who sighed. "Don't bother."

Lisbeth began distributing buffs. Luckily, no one had taken serious damage so Asuna and Silica just used Healing Bullet on those who had taken some. Sinon, meanwhile, used her sniper to do recon. "About 500 metres. They're all using machine guns." She sighed. "What are they thinking? They're going to do so little damage to us."

"Like it or not though, we're pinned down here." Lisbeth pointed out.

"Sinonon, can you take them out?" Asuna asked.

Sinon smiled. "No problem."

"And Kirito-"

"On it!" I ran out, Photon Sword at the ready. This was a strategy we had a hundred times while fighting at long ranges. I would be buffed with as many defence buffs from Lisbeth as possible and run out to draw fire to me, with Asuna and Silica on standby to heal should I took too much damage. Then, Sinon would use Leafa's shoulder to steady her shot and take out as many players as possible before they started retreating. Then I would charge in and take out the remaining few. Sometimes I would be joined by Yuuki, but she wasn't here this time.

It worked again. I had fire being drawn towards me. I identified which shots were going to hit me and aimed for those. Whenever I told someone how I did this, they always thought it was ridiculous, even those who know that I had Dual Wielding back in Sword Art Online. It was simply a matter of identifying the bullets that were threats and reacting. I didn't get every bullet either.

I began blocking the bullets and the first sniper shot went over my shoulder. A line disappeared. I began advancing. A second shot. Another line disappeared. I had covered a hundred metres. Another shot, along with two lines. I continued my swings. Typically when less than half the squadron remains, the group retreated. With a group of six, that should mean…

With the fourth shot, all gunfire stopped. I began sprinting as fast as I could. I kind of regret switching out my Speed Form but I was really looking forward to trying out this new trick. As soon as I could see them, I activated it. I began spinning rapidly, firing my pistol to draw their attention, a move that I liked to call Dual Orbital. One turned around and I sliced through his chest, cleaning cutting him in half. I dug my feet into the ground and threw myself at the other player, who stumbled backwards. As he did, a sniper bullet hit him in the back of the head. I was already halfway through my swing and it caused me to trip and tumble onto the ground.

I could almost hear the others laughing. I dusted myself as I waited for them to catch up. To my surprise, it didn't take them long as they arrived in a military jeep.

Lisbeth rolled down the driver's window. "We found it just outside the arena. Someone was too busy charging to notice."

"I'm more surprised that you can drive Lis." Asuna sighed as she pulled me up into the back. "I thought without Klein, we would be stuck."

"He's been helping me learn." Lisbeth shrugged. "It's strange how good of a teacher he is."

"To the city then?" Silica was poking her head out of the top, holding the mounted machine gun. I had to admit it was weird to see.

"Let's go!"

An old apartment building served as a nice place to relax. On our way here, we had missed the first scan, but judging by last known positions, we should be safe for a while. On the next scan, we could pick a target.

Sinon was on the balcony, looking down the main road while using her scope. Luckily during our first fight, none of our supplies were used.

"That hurt." I heard Leafa mutter from the corner as Asuna massaged her shoulders. "I hope we don't have many long-ranged fights."

"We're in a good place now." Asuna pointed out.

"That's true." Leafa sighed. "This game is way too complicated. I might go back to some ALO soon."

"Sure. Rain and Yuuki are still playing that, while Philia, Strea, Premiere and Tia are in SA:O." Asuna sighed. "If only the connection fee wasn't such a huge barrier."

I began throwing the handle of my Photon Sword between my hands, bored. I probably should also go back to ALO and SA:O soon to see everyone. I did regularly see Philia and Rain IRL, but Yuuki was still in the hospital despite improvements, and Strea, Premiere and Tia were a lot more difficult to convert over, requiring another account that someone had to foot the bill for.

Maybe I should ask Kikuoka if he could while I did that job for him.

"The scan's about to start again!" Silica called from a corner. Everyone except Sinon went over to Silica who had the map open. The seconds counted down and a wave went across the map.

There were only three other teams inside the city, with one close by. The three teams inside were quite a distance away, and could easily start a firefight amongst themselves. The team close to the city were none other than [YN]'s group, KIA. And they had just started moving towards the city.

"I know exactly what you're thinking Kirito." Asuna shook her head.

"We've never actually got the chance to fight them." I pointed out.

"Yeah, and for good reason." Leafa muttered. "You saw what they did with Tarako's group. [YN] was still a new player, and Kureha is always a few steps ahead. Arfa-sys is a great support unit and Itsuki…well, it's Itsuki."

"Well, I don't really want to miss out on the chance to fight them." Sinon joined us from the balcony, leaning her sniper against the wall. "And if they survive, we'll have to fight them eventually."

Lisbeth pointed to the main road. "If we travel along here, we should intercept them. They don't know we have a car."

Asuna leaned in, frowning. "If we attack quickly, they won't be able to plan for us properly. If we can separate them and take down one of them…"

A wave of nostalgia hit me. It had been a while since I've seen Asuna planning a raid battle. She had mostly left it to others in Ainground.

"So when the scan starts, we're rushing them in the car?" Silica squeaked.

"It's okay, you'll be in the machine gun." Lisbeth patted Silica on the head. "All you need to do is lay down suppressing fire."

"I guess…" Silica sighed deeply.

Lisbeth jumped up, pointing south to where KIA were. "Alright then! Let's give it to them!"

The road was rather uneven and bumpy. Several holes made the car violently bounce across the tarmac and cause discomfort. The scan had concluded a minute ago and we were already halfway to where [YN] was likely going to enter the city.

I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something about [YN] reminded me of what I was like before the SAO incident. Maybe that's why I was so determined to fight him, to see where I could be if I hadn't gone through that.

Well, soon we'd find-

The building ahead of us exploded, sending a shockwave that violently launched the jeep into the air and into a lamppost. Everyone was thrown forwards. I groaned as I sat back up and looked at the window. _Is it possible that they knew we were coming?_

However, what I saw was very different that what I was imagining.

"But there was no one else around…?" Asuna joined me at the window.

A cloaked figure stood over [YN], performing some sort of cross gesture with his hand. Immediately, something about this player felt off. I could feel…death. He stank of death.

 _Where have I felt this before?_

My body reacted on its own, the door being flung open and I ran out, my arm drawn back ready to perform Vorpal Strike. The player turned and dodged out of the way just in time to avoid my Photon Sword going through his neck.

A low chuckle filled the air. "Not yet Black Swordsman." I swung at him again but my blade cut through nothing, like he had disappeared into thin air.

"Where did he go?" I looked around to see nothing.

* * *

 **So then, hope you enjoyed. This one took a while because of the shift in perspective. While with the OC, I have freedom with them. But Kirito is very much a stationary character who you need to write right. I know that I probably haven't done a great job, but I tried my best. This is why I usually focus on my original characters in Nightshade.**

 **Reviews:**

 **LordY89: Glad you enjoyed it. I certainly enjoyed writing it :)**

 **So then, I want to try and remove any expectation of a release window. I can't keep up with producing chapters at a consistent rate with my current schedule. I'd say one every month is a reasonable expectation, but if I'm late with that, then I apologise. Hope everyone can understand.**

 **Either way, hope you enjoyed. As always, Stay Cool.**


	18. 16: Aftermath

**Hello again. Sorry for the wait. And I'm afraid this is a rather short chapter. I hope you'll enjoy regardless.**

* * *

Chapter 16

Aftermath

I looked up through the dust and struggled to move. My body still felt numb. I could see people moving through the dust, too many to just be Kureha and Itsuki.

"Kirito, are you alright?"

That voice was Asuna. So it was Kirito's group. How they managed to get here so quickly wasn't clear to me just yet. I just needed to be able to move.

"Jeez, what's with the rush?" More voices joined the group. I saw a pair of feet move into my field of view and I was dragged away from the road. I was propped up against the wall by Leafa and the smaller girl with the pigtails. I looked to my left to see Arfa-sys lying on the ground, motionless. Asuna was checking on her but the dead sign above her head already told me that it was too late.

Kirito was stood in the middle of the road, his sword still activated. His eyes seemed to be scanning for Death Gun. However, he was nowhere to be seen. I shuddered as I remembered his blood red eyes staring at me before getting ready to pull the trigger.

"Hey, you there?" The pink haired girl began snapping her fingers in front of my face. I tried moving my arm but the Paralysis hadn't worn off yet. "Wow, this must be one of the most potent forms of paralysis I've ever encountered."

"Is Kureha…and Itsuki alright…?" I struggled to speak.

"We…don't really know." Leafa admitted.

A rocket flew past the group and a jeep exploded, throwing them to the ground. "[YN], you need to move!" Kureha's voice came from my earpiece.

"I can't…" My Paralysis was still active. "Kureha…stop firing…"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"They aren't trying to-"

A gunshot came rang echoed through the street. My eyes widened as I realised my HP had hit zero and I felt my body falling sideways.

 _What's going on?_

I found myself standing outside the Governor's Office. There was a few groups hanging around talking to each other. Someone was watching Squad Jam on a feed. I could just make out Kirito's group engaging Itsuki, and Kureha's body lay on the ground. It didn't take long for Itsuki to retire from the match.

"Master!" Arfa-sys suddenly tackled me from behind. I felt a wave of relief wash over me and I patted her on the head. "While I was lying there, I saw that player from before and I just…"

"It's okay." I could feel her arms trembling. I was still trying to wrap my head around what had happened.

Another flash of light appeared behind us and Kureha appeared. She ran up to us and sighed. "What did you mean, stop firing? I was about to kill four of them."

"Um, it's really complicated."

Kureha shook her head. "I guess Itsuki has given up. Even he can't take on six players."

"Yeah. I'll try and explain it all when we get back to the room."

"Wait, Death Gun targeted you!?" Kureha jumped up, slamming her hands against the table.

The screen in Itsuki's room was showing the Squad Jam feed. We figured it was best to watch the match to get everything possible.

From what we could see, Death Gun had been hiding in a nearby building, rigging the street with explosives. He used this to separate me and Arfa-sys from Kureha, killing Arfa-sys and paralysing me. Then Kirito's group came in last second to stop him from shooting me. Afterwards, a gunshot came from off camera and killed me. Kureha had begun firing from on top of the fallen building but was quickly gunned down.

Itsuki leaned back in his chair. "You're absolutely sure you never saw him on the map nearby?"

"Yeah, I checked once the building had fallen over, and only then I saw another player there." Kureha looked shook.

Arfa-sys was clinging to my arm. I was still trying to make sense of the situation. Itsuki, meanwhile, was oddly calm.

A knock came from the door. Itsuki checked the camera and rolled his eyes. "Figures…"

"Oi, Itsuki, I know you're in there. I know you've probably got company." Bazalt Joe's voice came through the door. Itsuki unlocked the door and Bazalt Joe immediately walked over to me and slapped me on the back. "Damn, your luck really is unrivalled. I swear I thought you had been shot and I just missed it. With the rumours going around about that player."

I looked up at him, surprised. "You're not mad."

"Mad!? Why would I be mad? If the rumours are true, then you'd be-"

"Give the kid a break Joe." Zeliska appeared in the doorway. "Glad you're alright [YN]."

"Thanks. But I don't even know what's the big fuss." I shrugged.

Bazalt Joe jumped back. "Wait, you don't even know!?"

Zeliska sat down and sighed. "I'll explain the best I can." She opened her friend's list. Two of the people on there were greyed out, both I recognised. Tarako and Pale Rider. "Death Gun seems to be targeting several players in GGO. They were all rising in the ranks, becoming top tier players, so a lot of eyes were on them. And since the day they encountered Death Gun, they haven't logged on since."

"Some people think they're dead." Bazalt Joe muttered.

"That's speculation Joe." Zeliska pointed out.

I could feel the blood drain from my face. "I could've died today?"

"But that's impossible!" Kureha eyes seemed to shrink in fear. "There's no way to kill someone in a game anymore right?"

"That's why it's only speculation." Zeliska pointed out. "They haven't logged in. We can't exactly know without knowing them personally. Some players tend to take long breaks after being killed in game to let any ridicule from losing wash away."

Despite her reassurance, I didn't feel any better.

"Well, I know what you need." Bazalt Joe patted me on the back again. "I'll come out into the field with you. I'm a top level player, and I'm sure you've noticed that I'm rather tough in a fight. If we ever see this Death Gun, he won't know what hit him."

For whatever reason, his offer seemed to brighten the mood. Itsuki was the first to take a dig at him. "Please, you lost against [YN] when he was still a noob."

Bazalt Joe froze. "W-well, either way, it's my duty to protect someone in danger. And so I shall do that, otherwise I have no pride as a-"

"Yeah, we get it." Kureha had a small smile on her face again. "You're only going to use it as an excuse to spend time with Rei."

"Um…who's Rei?"

I leaned against the railing in Glocken. This was probably the only place that was safe because you can't fire guns in the Safe Zone.

"Master, you shouldn't go out on your own." Arfa-sys joined me. She looked rather panicked.

"It's fine. It's a Safe Zone. Unless somehow someone disables it, I'll be fine." I tried to force a smile, but I couldn't. "Sorry, it's been a rough couple of hours."

"Yeah, I guess it has."

I turned to see Kirito standing there. He was smiling, but it wasn't meeting his eyes. I bowed. "Thank you. If you hadn't come when you did-"

"You want to go on that quest?" Kirito interrupted me.

I froze up. It was Arfa-sys who responded first. "But it's too dangerous."

"Don't worry. Asuna and Sinon are also coming out."

I knew what he was trying to do. Get me to have fun and distract me from the reality. I sighed and shrugged. "Why not?"

"But Master-"

"If you're concerned [ArN], why don't you come with us?" I suggested. Immediately she nodded. I turned back to Kirito. "Probably best to wait for Kureha, Zeliska and Itsuki to log out. They'll be livid if they find out I went out after today."

"Sure." Kirito nodded. "I have to wait for the other two anyway."

Arfa-sys was still looking rather worried. But maybe something like this is something I needed.

"Hey [YN]!" Asuna suddenly appeared from the market, waving as she ran over. Sinon was behind her, loading bullets into a magazine.

"Hello." I bowed. "Thank you for helping me out earlier."

"Oh, that wasn't a big deal." Asuna waved it off. "Shall we head off then"

I checked my friends list. Kureha and Zeliska were offline. Bazalt Joe was in the Governor's Office and Itsuki was in his room. "Yeah, I'm ready."

Kirito nodded. "Then let's go."

* * *

 **A lot of details have finally begun to come** **together. I'm really looking forward to writing the future parts.**

 **One of my goals with this rewrite was to give stakes to the game. Because until the end, there's not really anything to build tension. But now, Death Gun has his eyes on the OC. Plus, with Bazalt Joe's past as a police officer, it makes sense for him to want to protect a citizen in danger, so he gets to join the party. Though that doesn't mean he won't try and steal Arfa-sys.**

 **Again, sorry for the delay. Life, work, motivation...blah blah blah...**

 **Reviews:**

 **Antex-The Legendary Zoroark: Thanks for your enthusiasm, but please, you don't have to review every single chapter.**

 **Anyway, hopefully the next chapter won't be as long of a wait. We'll be getting some time with Kirito and the gang.**

 **Until next time, Stay Cool.**


	19. 17: A Tight Knit Bond

**Guess who's back (back again). Here we are, after a long time waiting. As always, sorry for the wait. Lack of motivation, been busy with life, yada yada... You know the drill by now.**

 **As always, see you at the bottom.**

* * *

Chapter 17

A Tight Knit Bond

"Switch!"

"Got it!" Asuna charged in, teleporting forwards before unleashing a barrage of gunfire into the weak point of the Hooligan. It collapsed, leaving it open to attack. Kirito moved in to finish it, but the crack of a sniper echoed throughout the air and the beast exploded before Kirito could strike it.

"That was my kill." He twirled his Photon Sword around, deactivating it before clipping it to his belt.

"You were too slow." Sinon smirked as she slung her sniper rifle over her shoulder. "I believe that's three to one for me and Asuna."

"Hey, that's not fair. I need to get up close to damage them."

"Well, that's your fault to stubbornly clinging to swords."

Asuna sighed, shaking her head. "Come on Kirito, Sinonon, we should get going."

"Right. Hey! You nearly done over there!?"

I panted as I slid down the bank, the Hooligan leaping at me. I was just out of its reach, the beast tumbling down the hill and throwing sand up in the air as it bounced. I twisted my body to aim at it, unloading a clip into its horns and activating Sliding Shot. The Hooligan lay in the sand for a second before exploding.

"That was close." I wiped the sand off my clothing. "You okay there [ArN]?"

Arfa-sys shook herself out of a trance and nodded. "Yes Master!"

I frowned. She had been like this since we had left Glocken. Constantly going into trances. I guess it was because she was worried, but surely being with three other people who are perfectly capable of taking on Death Gun would calm her down a bit.

Kirito seemed to notice this too, immediately heading over to us and putting a hand on Arfa-sys's shoulder. "Don't worry Rei, we're almost in the area. Then all we need to do is take on the boss and we'll head back."

"Right…I'm just not feeling well." Arfa-sys shook her head.

I looked at Kirito with confusion. "Can AI get sick?"

"Not typically." This immediately concerned me. Kirito raised his hand to his chin, muttering to himself. "Maybe a scripted event... Argo would probably know more, but we would be wasting time just to head back…" He sighed. "Can you continue on Rei?"

"Y-yes!" Arfa-sys nodded, putting on a fake smile. "Don't worry about me!"

Asuna patted Arfa-sys on the head. "If you need to, then drop back. We can handle the heat for a bit."

"We'll be handling most of it anyway. I hear the boss can fly." Sinon glanced at the Photon Sword in Kirito's hand. He just rolled his eyes and continued towards the bottom of the map.

Over the sand dunes, a building began to peak over the desert. Even from this distance, I could see it was an oil refinery, long abandoned by any friendly people. Two turrets guarded the entrance, with several Facsimiles roaming the inside.

Sinon lay on the ground and looked through her sniper scope. "I can snipe a few, but those turrets are going to be an issue."

Asuna nodded. "Kirito and [YN] can rush the turrets to draw their fire. Me and Rei can be on support." She passed Arfa-sys two smoke grenades. "We'll cover your approach."

"Right." Kirito jumped up and began running. Expecting some sort of call before leaping up, I didn't even realise he had jumped up until he was already several metres in front of me. I scrambled to my feet and began firing as I ran towards the right turret, drawing its attention. I heard gunshots behind me and Facsimiles began dropping inside the refinery.

As the Bullet Line began aiming for me, a smoke grenade landed several feet in front of me. I dived forwards onto my shoulder under the blasts, rolling straight onto my feet. I looked over at Kirito who had already managed to get to his turret and was ducked under the cannons which weren't able to aim at him. I was halfway to the turret now, and I activated my Sliding Shot, throwing up sand in front of me. I stopped just in front of the turret, underneath its firing range. I almost couldn't believe that this was an exploit because it was so simple. Not wanting to waste any ammo, I activated my own Photon Sword and began hacking away at the turret, its HP soon depleted.

I deactivated the Photon Sword and placed it on my belt again. I joined Kirito at the entrance to the oil refinery. "You use one too?" He nodded at my belt. "A lot of people think they're a waste of money."

"It's a little too situational for my taste, but they're alright." I shrugged.

"Before you two start fanboying over your laser swords, how about we do what we came here for?" Sinon suggested as she and Asuna walked past us into the refinery.

We followed behind Asuna and Sinon, Arfa-sys right behind us. "If you want, I can show you some tricks sometime. It'll be fun." Kirito twirled the handle around his fingers.

"That would be nice."

The inside of the oil refinery was a ghost town. There were watchtowers that had no one in them. Old equipment that hadn't been touched in decades. Tanks that were caked in rust, mostly likely dry of oil. It was dead.

"I don't like this." Asuna muttered as she aimed her rifle at the watchtowers.

"Afraid of ghosts jumping out at you?" Kirito teased.

"Kirito, don't." Despite trying to sound as serious as possible, a tremor of fear was present in Asuna's voice.

Kirito laughed. "I'm kidding. I don't think there are any ghost type enemies in this game. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to shoot them."

I smiled, letting my rifle rest in my hands. "So what exactly are we looking for?"

"Argo said that she needed to verify a quest that was supposed to spawn around here with a boss." Kirito's voice echoed as we all started to drift apart. "There must be a trigger around here somewhere."

Arfa-sys walked past me suddenly. Her upper body was stiff and her eyes looked like she was in a trance again. She was walking straight at a small pillar that was sticking out of the ground in the exact centre of the oil refinery.

"Hey [ArN]!" I grabbed her arm. She stopped suddenly, blinking rapidly. "What's wrong?"

"It's calling to me…" She muttered. Her hand was outstretched towards the pillar.

 _This might be the trigger._ "Hey, I think we found something!"

Asuna reached us first, immediately going to investigate the pillar. "There's nothing on this pillar."

"Maybe Rei is the only one who can use it?" Sinon suggested.

"You need an Arfa-sys to get this to work?" Kirito looked somewhat annoyed. "No wonder it only came to Argo's attention the other day. Seems like a pretty small amount of players that can even access this quest."

"Should we let Rei touch it?" Asuna was still looking over the pillar. "There's no sign of any traps."

Kirito nodded. "Let's get ready for a boss fight first."

Everyone began preparing for battle. The entire time, Arfa-sys had her eyes glued to the pillar. It didn't take long for everyone to get to vantage points. I stayed by Arfa-sys's side, ready to pull her away if the pillar was indeed a trap.

Arfa-sys placed her palm on the pillar, and it lit up. The pillar was a console, and the style of it immediately reminded me of the dungeon where I had found Arfa-sys.

An ear-piercing noise rang throughout the area. I instantly had to cover my ears to stop them from bursting. The noise soon fizzled away, and I looked up to see Arfa-sys falling backwards. I dived forwards to catch her in my arms. Her eyes were closed, but she seemed to be half conscious.

"Mother…I have to…go to…Mother…"

"[YN], get back!"

Kirito's yells instantly alerted me to Bullet Line that was aimed at me. I began running, but it was too late. The laser hit my back and I fell to the ground, Arfa-sys rolling away from me. I crawled towards her, hearing the sound of lasers activating behind me. I shielded Arfa-sys with my body, knowing that the attack would likely kill me.

"You really can't stay out of trouble for ten minutes, can you?"

A bullet flew above me, striking my attacker. It was enough to divert the laser away from me, avoiding a killing blow. I instantly got up, lifting Arfa-sys in a bridal carry, and getting behind one of the oil tanks as some sort of cover.

I let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you Itsuki."

"Well I thought you were logging off for the night." His voice crackled in my earpiece, which I had honestly forgotten was there after the Squad Jam thanks to all the chaos.

"Friend of yours [YN]!?" Kirito yelled from the watchtower where he was firing his handgun from.

"Yeah, he's a friend."

Another gunshot came from the sand dunes. "I'll provide some fire for you to all get out of here. I'm afraid to say that that boss isn't going down any time soon."

Looking at the HP bar from my cover, he was right. The boss was under fire from two sniper rifles, an assault rifle and a handgun, and it was barely making a dent.

"I need to get [ArN] out of here!" I yelled at everyone. Arfa-sys was still muttering in her strange state.

"Go on ahead, we'll catch up!" Asuna yelled back.

I picked up Arfa-sys again, waiting for an opening. I could now see the boss fully. It was called the Honeycomb Maker. It was humanoid in form, about twice the size of a player, with a set of wings on its back that had two jet boosters keeping it in the air. On its right arm was some sort of cannon, most likely where the lasers came from.

The instant it turned away from me, I ran. It was awkward with Arfa-sys in my arms like this, but it was manageable. I could hear the sound of gunfire and lasers fading behind me. It didn't take long for me to make it out of aggro range for the Honeycomb Maker.

I let out a sigh of relief, opening my menu and pressing the teleport for Glocken.

I lay Arfa-sys down on the bed in my room. She had finally stopped muttering to herself, sleeping peacefully. I finally took a moment to breathe after that sudden rush of adrenaline. According to my friend's list, Itsuki had only just arrived back in Glocken, so I had a few moments before I was inevitably called to talk.

 _What was that console doing there? And who is Mother?_

My message notification popped up, and it was from Kirito saying they were just outside the main building. I made sure Arfa-sys was still asleep before heading down to Glocken.

"-for a small fee."

"How much?"

"Let's say…10,000 credits?"

The voices came from the left of the entrance, where a player in a yellow uniform, thick straw-coloured hair and whiskers, of all things, was talking with Kirito.

"That is a small fee coming from you." Kirito raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "What if you knocked off the pay from the quest?"

"That is with the pay knocked off." Her mouth curled into a smug smile.

Kirito opened his mouth, then slowly closed it, a look of disappointment passing over his face, directed more at himself than anything.

I approached them. "What's going on?"

"I'm getting ripped off as per usual." Kirito sighed.

"Aw, come on Kii-boy, don't besmirch my good name to a new customer." The player did a weird laugh. "Argo the Info Broker. If ya need any information or have any to sell, I'm ya girl."

I nodded. "What's with the whiskers?"

"I'll tell ya for a million."

Kirito rolled his eyes. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see Itsuki. Already getting ready prepared for a lecture, I sighed before explaining. "I was out with Kirito, Asuna and Sinon. I would've been fine if Death Gun showed up."

"I know. I was bored so I decided to see what you all were up to." Itsuki's slight smile appeared again. "A game is about having fun right? You can't do that if you're hiding in the Safe Zone all the time."

A wave of relief washed over me. "Thanks."

"So [YN], is Rei alright?" Asuna suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Yeah, she was sleeping when I left her."

Asuna sighed with relief. "I'm glad. That sudden collapse scared me."

I looked at her, confused. "You really didn't seem that scared."

Kirito smiled. "Asuna isn't phased at all when she's in battle. They called her the Berserk Healer back in ALO."

"Kirito!" Asuna blushed.

I yawned. "I should actually head off now. It's very late."

"Hey, we'll mostly be free from now on. If you want, shoot us a message if we're online and we can help out." Kirito opened his menu, scrolling through the tabs. A friend request soon followed.

"Thanks, I'll call you if we need help." I turned back towards the main building.

As soon as I was back in my room, a wave of exhaustion suddenly hit me like a truck. "I really shouldn't be staying up so late…" I muttered before falling asleep on the bed.

* * *

 **So this is the part where Kirito, Asuna and the gang would all be available for use in my version. You've had plenty of time to mess around with Kureha, Zeliska, Arfa-sys and Itsuki, now the rest of the crew jump in. But only the ones that you've seen so far. Don't worry, I do have a plan for the Gameverse characters, but unlike Fatal Bullet, I don't want to shoehorn them in for the sake of it.**

 **Reviews:**

 **blackbutterfly1313: Thank you for the kind words, and thank you for the criticism. I am trying to add as much depth as possible to this story, so if I missed the mark, I'm sorry, and will try hard to add that detail. And yes, my proofreading skills are terrible. I've been trying to improve them, but sometimes things slip by me. I'll work hard to not let them in the future.**

 **As always, thanks for reading. I'm really looking forward to continuing as I begin to introduce the Flugel quest. A lot of you probably didn't even notice that I had skipped that detail. I wanted to give the characters some time to just have fun, but now the plot is kicking up, time to add some pressure.**

 **Until next time, Stay Cool.**


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